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Check Out The Iconic Buildings Built From Cake At The Great Architectural Bake Off
By
Scott Lynch
Published Oct 4, 2017
Modified Oct 4, 2017
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Scott Lynch / Gothamist
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By
Scott Lynch
Published Oct 4, 2017
Modified Oct 4, 2017
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It's Archtober again here in NYC, when our architecture and design are celebrated with events all month long. One newer event, now in its second year, brings elite teams of architects together in a basement on LaGuardia Place to construct elaborate buildings (from all over) out of cake.
The free event, dubbed the Great Architectural Bake Off (GABO), was held at the Center For Architecture in the Village on Tuesday, and it was a blast.
At 4 p.m., eleven teams from some of the city's top design firms assembled before their tables, with piping bags, blueprints, fondant, and drafting triangles at the ready. After three hours of intense focus (and plenty of alcohol), it was "spatulas down" and time to rate the results.
(Scott Lynch / Gothamist)
Three criteria were looked at by the all-star panel of GABO judges: creative use of materials, "recognizability" of the building, and deliciousness of the cake itself. To no one's surprise, the winner of the competition this year was Davis Brody Bond for their stunning replica of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, a building co-designed by one of their firm's founders, Max Bond.
There were several extremely worthy runners-up as well, including the technically astonishing Flushing Meadows Unisphere by Dattner Architects; the incredibly detailed "first McDonalds" restaurant by H3; and the cartoony Guggenheim by ZGF Architects. However, the winner in this reporter's heart was the slowly imploding "Jenga Building" (56 Leonard) by Bespoke Careers, a perhaps unintentional but nonetheless effective "protest against the millionaire class," as one team member put it. This also happened to be the best tasting cake in the room. Talk about eating the rich.
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Scott Lynch
Photojournalist, food writer, preschool receptionist. Love NYC.
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