Design a groundhog-shaped building for our Groundhog Day 2025 art contest
On a recent episode of the excellent podcast, the memory palace, host Nate DiMeo discussed how, in the late 19th century, an inventor named James V. Lafferty built a couple of elephant-shaped buildings, including the short-lived ‘Eighth Wonder of the World,’ the Elephantine Colossus.
Lafferty had been granted a patent for the exclusive rights to build animal-shaped buildings, and for some reason decided elephants were the way to go.
Now, of course, we were aware of the famous Lucy the Elephant, a large elephant that still exists today, near Atlantic City, New Jersey, but we didn’t know that Lucy once had siblings. Besides the Elephantine Colossus, there was also a smaller version of Lucy, called the Light of Asia in Cape May, New Jersey, that Lafferty allowed another real estate developer to build.
This got us to wondering, what if James V. Lafferty was really into groundhogs instead of elephants? What if he just kept building groundhog-shaped buildings, all over the country? Today, could dozens of visitors each year be visiting a giant groundhog named Lucy the Groundhog?
And why hasn’t Punxsutawney done something with this? Wouldn’t a giant groundhog hotel be one more thing to get tourists to come into the town, even when it’s not Groundhog Day?
So for this 2025’s Groundhog Day art contest, we’re asking you to design buildings/hotels/other structures shaped as groundhogs. You can draw the outside of the building, blueprints, or include cross-sections showing what the inside/outside would look like. Whatever you like.
If you’d like to participate, send an image of your artwork to:
groundhog@countdowntogroundhogday.com
Include any additional information you would like to share about your submission in your email as well.
Entries must be the original artwork of the submitter, no AI please. There will be prizes for the top 3 vote-getters.
First Place: $30 Amazon.com Gift Card or equivalent (digital)
Second Place: $10 Amazon.com Gift Card or equivalent (digital)
Third Place: $5 Amazon.com Gift Card or equivalent (digital)
Submission Start Date: Friday, December 13th, 2024
Submission End Date: Thursday, January 23rd, 2025 (all entries must be received by midnight ET)
Voting will begin on Friday, January 24th, 2025 on the Countdown to Groundhog Day website, open to all users. Voting will end on Friday, January 31st, 2025 at 11:59PM, Eastern Time (ET). The winning entries will be posted on the Countdown to Groundhog Day website and the winners notified via email on or about February 1st, 2025 (Groundhog Day Eve!).
Good luck! We can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Tags: groundhog, groundhog art, groundhog art contest, groundhog day art, groundhog day art contest, groundhog-shaped building, lucy the elephant