Starting off the summer on a high note the PhiloWilke team partnered with Roger’s O’Brien Construction, Telios and Industex for the 31st annual AIA Sandcastle Competition to form, “The Sand Element”. A spin-off of the two-decade old sci-fi movie, The Fifth Element, featuring Bruce Willis, Chris Tucker and Milla Jovovich. To fully capture the essence of the movie and enhance our site, our team created costumes to impersonate the characters LeeLoo, Korben Dallas, Ruby Rhod and the flight attendant.

It was a long day full of shoveling and building on the beach luckily, there were no trips made to the first aid tent. Architect, Kenneth Olson stated “I always look forward to the smell of sunblock and playing in the sand. This past years AIA Sandcastle event was no different, I enjoy the comradery of the event and seeing friends within the AE community. I have two parts of the day that I really enjoy, the ever-critical moment of removing the forms from the sand, praying that your form is still standing, and then walking the beach at the end of the day to see the final designs.”  The sandcastles were truly a work of art, although we didn’t come home with the Golden Bucket we were happy to have won Best Team Costume.