August 24, 1999

Local team makes the sand come alive

By ANNU MANGAT
Journal Staff Reporter

It took a lot of sand, inspiration -and perspiration -for a team of local designers to clinch first prize at the recent U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition in Imperial Beach, Calif.

A jalopy with a hen perched on its hood is one component of the sand sculpture entitled "Moon Swine," which took first place at the recent U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition. Designed by a team of local architects, the 8 1/2-foot sculpture took about five hours to build.

In about five hours, the team built a three-piece sand sculpture depicting a hillbilly scene, complete with an old pickup truck, chickens and a weary hound dog draped over a barrel. Entitled "Moon Swine," the 8 1/2-foot sculpture was created from 11 cubic cards of sand. The team's recent victory is its third at the Imperial Beach contest. About 150,000 people are estimated to have attended the annual event, which is sponsored by the city of Imperial Beach and the city of San Diego.

Team captain Vern Cooley of LMN Architects in Seattle said participation in the contest is, of course, fun, but he was quick to add: "There's an awful lot of work involved in this."

Under rules for the annual U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition, the teams have no more than six hours to complete their masterpieces, which can be built only with sand and water. "It's a race," said Cooley. "You have to be very coordinated and organized."

Another part of the sand sculpture features a pig lounging in a bathtub and a hillbilly leaning against a barrel of moonshine.

Fashioning such intricate work takes advance planning and practice. Cooley said the team, which has competed together for five years, develops a design, usually a humorous one, and executes a model before the actual competition.

Before the contest begins, team members fill water buckets and dig pits, which are lined with plastic, around the sculpture site as a reservoir. Once the competition starts, members quickly go into action, pounding sand and water into plywood forms to make dense blocks; known as the "pound-up," this compaction of sand and water is the most critical aspect of construction, Cooley said. He said the team starts laying the blocks at the bottom to be shaped later in greater detail, with each team member pre-assigned a specific part to sculpt.

A bloodhound, made from highly compacted sand and water, droops over a barrel of moonshine.

Other members of the sand sculpture design team are: Ken Large, a landscape architect in Redmond; Jeff Benesi, a landscape architectural planner for Hewitt Architects; Stan Allison, an airport planner for Washington state; Jerry Ernst, an architectural planner for NBBJ; Michael Woodland, an architectural planner for the Seattle Aquarium; Russ Leno, an aircraft cockpit electronics engineer for IDD Aerospace in Redmond; Pam Burns, an artist and aerobics instructor at the Washington Athletic Club; and Erin Palmer, a local artist and independent architect.

Though these designers devote their careers to shaping things that endure the test of time, the fleeting, temporary nature of sand sculpting is part of the thrill of the contest, Cooley said.

"Everyone remembers making sandcastles on the beach as kids. We've just never stopped," he said.