Gingerbread 2024

Something Sweet - Gingerbread 2024

There are many things that make us feel like the holidays are just around the corner: snow on the ground, holiday light shows, and perhaps even the occasional polar vortex! At the Studio21 Architects office, however, the marker of the holiday season is our annual Gingerbread Design Party. After eleven years of hosting this event for the families of Downers Grove and beyond, we have seen kids literally grow into fully-fledged adults with this party as a yearly holiday tradition. We have witnessed parents turning their kids’ designs into long-lasting holiday decorations (a testament to the magically long-lasting frosting we have created!).  

Every year, this event is chaos in the best way, and this year delivered! With nearly fifty kids signed up this year, we had lots of holiday cheer alongside the amazing creative prowess of our Junior Architects. At each event, we notice certain themes popping up; sometimes a specific candy becomes a favorite amongst the kids, and other times we see similarities in the design inspiration itself. Last year, we saw a lot of the more classic residential designs, ranging from the more quaint cabins and beach houses to the more elaborate and grandiose palaces. At this year’s event, we saw not only a shift in inspiration but also with candy choice. Many of our Junior Architects departed from the traditional residential gingerbread home and instead ventured into the commercial architecture space. We saw a gas station, skate park, TWO stadiums (one for the Detroit Lions and one to host Taylor Swift’s Eras tour), and the Wizard of Oz’s Emerald City. As opposed to using a rainbow color scheme, many of this year’s Junior Architects honed their aesthetics with a discernable color palette. We even witnessed a few of our Junior Architects enter their post-modern architectural phase, exemplified by a building shaped like a cat.  

It doesn’t end there, though! Each year, we hold two gingerbread elections, if you will, so we can establish the winners of our “Excellence in Gingerbread Architecture” award (which comes complete with some extra fun prizes!). One vote takes place in our office and the other is all up to you via Facebook. This year, the E.G.A. award goes to...Asher and Beckett! Asher won this year’s social media vote with his gingerbread barge; his design expertly blended nautical architecture with the engineering know-how that is crucial to the construction of a barge—a barge made of gingerbread no less! This year’s office winner was Beckett, who also broke out of the traditional residential mold to venture into civic/commercial architecture by creating a sleek field design for the Detroit Lions.  
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Fun times from Gingerbread for Grown-Ups!

Our newest addition to the celebratory gingerbread pantheon, Gingerbread for Grown-Ups, had its second year, and we feel it was once again a rousing success. Why should kids have all the fun, right? On the eve of the main event, our group of parents gathered to build their own gingerbread houses, alongside snacks and “grownups-only” beverages. Studio21 Architects president, Bill, finds this event to be a great prelude to the craziness and fun of the kid’s event the following day. Gingerbread for Grown-Ups had been in the idea stage for ​

many years and, at this point, all we can say is, “Why didn’t we do this sooner?” 

Of course, our annual gingerbread festivities are organized on behalf of Toys for Tots and the Ronald McDonald House Charities. There are many children in not only Illinois, but all across the country, suffering from the effects of poverty, sickness, and hunger, and due to the work of both charities, more and more kids and families are able to celebrate the holidays a little bit easier this year. We thank every single one of you for your donations, whether it was a toy or a monetary contribution. For Ronald McDonald House, we raised a total of $210 and for Toys for Tots, we dropped off a whole SUV full of toys and gifts! 

With the eleventh iteration of this event now complete, we want to offer our congratulations to our winners, Asher and Beckett, and one last thank you to all of you who have made this event possible. We hope you had a lovely holiday and finally...Welcome to 2025!! ​

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Written By: Emma H. 

Emma works as the Marketing Manager for Studio21 Architects. She is the writer behind (almost) all of our newsletter articles, and she works hard to make sure all of our marketing materials reflect an architect-approved design quality!