"Canstruction" - Food Can Sculpture Exhibit And Food Drive At Lower Manhattan's Brookfield Place World Financial Center

Canstruction® is an extraordinary annual design competition and a unique food charity  in the world. Now on exhibit are the structures made entirely of unopened cans of food. Teams of architects, engineers, contractors, and the students they mentor created these sculptures for the competition. After public public viewing, they are dismantled and donated to City Harvest for distribution to those in need. Admission is free, but visitors are asked to bring a can of high quality food to the exhibition’s collection station. The exhibit runs through November 13 at Brookfield Place World Financial Center at 220 Vesey Street.

CANstruction 2011: Sculptures Made From Canned Food at the World Financial Center

"Suspending Hunger" by Skanska USA

"NepTUNA the HippoCANpus Against Hunger" by Gilsanz Murray Steficek LLP

"High-Tops for Hunger" by Thornton Tomasetti

"Hungry Birds" by Ennead Architects

"STOP Hunger START Sharing" by CetraRuddy

"Root Against Hunger" by Dattner Architects

"Strike Out Hunger" by Eleanor Roosevelt High School/Sandra Forman Architect

"Giving Hunger the Boot" by GACE Consulting Engineers

"TiCANic" by Robert Silman Associates

Canstruction, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that holds canned food drive to benefit local food banks, as well as annual design and build competitions to construct sculptures made entirely out of canned food. In each city after the structures are built and the winners declared the creations go on view to the general public as giant art exhibits. In New York City, the exhibit is being held at the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center site. Pictured above are just some of the 26 creative structures built from canned food now on display through November 21. At the end of the competitions all of the food used in the structures will be donated to the local food banks for distribution to community emergency feeding programs.

CANstruction 2010: Sculptures Made From Cans of Food at the World Financial Center

"Cups Can Only Spill" by Gilsanz Murray Steficek, LLP (5,180 cans)

"Comida Cubes" by GACE Consulting Engineers PC (2,6980 cans)

"philANThropy" by HOK (1,200 cans)

"The Candard Hotel, New York" by DeSimore Consulting Engineers (4,056 cans)

"The BabushCAN" by Thornton Tomasetti (3,472 cans)

"CAN Mario 1-UP Hunger?" by Severud Associates Consulting Engineers (3,600 cans)

"CAN Mario 1-UP Hunger?" (back view)

"Can'truck'tion: Delivering a Thanksgiving Meal" by RAND Engineering & Architecture (4,054 cans)

"Mr. Potato Head" by STV Inc. (4,104 cans)

"Building Blocks Against Hunger" by WSP Flack+Kurtz FXFOWLE (7,644 cans)

Canstruction is a unique design competition for teams of architecture and engineering professionals to create structures made entirely of full cans of food. The entries are now in display throughout the World Financial Center in downtown Manhattan near the World Trade Center site through November 22. Above are just some of the entries. At the end of the competition, the structures are dismantled and donated to City Harvest for distribution to families in need.  

CANstruction 2009: Sculptures Made From Cans of Food at the World Financial Center's Winter Garden

Peace Out Hunger (Conant)

Give Peace A Can (Gensler)

Don't Walk Away from Hunger (Thorton Tomasetti)

We Get By With A Little Help From Our Friends (Ted Moudis Associates)

We Get By With A Little Help From Our Friends (Ted Moudis Associates)

Big Apple Cansportation (Hatch Mott MacDonald)

Can Watch (Hok)

Canny Island (FX Fowle/WSP Flack + Kurtz)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Polshek Partnership Architects)

Shedding Light on Hunger (Rand Engineering and Architecture)

PumpCAN (Ferguson & Shamamian)

Barry the St. CANard (AECOM)

We Can Feed the World (National Reprographics, Inc.)

Lend A Helping Can (Dattner Architects)

CANnery Row (Severud Associates)

Peanut Butter Love (Perkins + Will)

It's Raining Cans (Langan Engineering)

PumpCAN Pie (Desimone)

Twisting to New Heights (Weidlinger Associates, Inc)

"Feed the Bank" Piggy Bank (Arianna Braun)

Snakes on a CANe (Gilsanz Murray Steficek, LLP)

CoCANut Oasis (Robert Silman Associates)

Hungry Hudson (Einhorn Yaffee Perscott)

"Food For All" (Skidmore, Owings and Merrill)

A Light at the End of the CANarsie Tunnel (MTA New York City Transit)

Wiping Out Hunger Dude (ARUP)

Canstruction®, a unique food charity organized competitions throughout North America to design and build giant sculptures made entirely from full cans of food. Here in New York, the display of sculptures opened yesterday at the World Financial Center( Courtyard Gallery and Winter Garden ). Architects, engineers and students have been participating in this event. This year’s entries from New York City will be displayed from November12-23 at the World Financial Center, and then dismantled and donated to City Harvest for distribution to those in need. These are the images that I made last night of some of the entries. The WFC hours are: November 12, 2009 9 am–11 pm, November 13–22, 2009 7 am–11 pm, November 23, 2009 (LAST DAY) 7 am–5 pm. The Winter Garden is located at 220 Vesey St.

From Canstruction website:

A foundation of the Society for Design Administration (SDA), Canstruction^® is a Trademarked design/build competition currently held in cities throughout North America Australia and cities from around the world will soon be participating . Teams of architects, engineers, and students mentored by these professionals, compete to design and build giant structures made entirely from full cans of food. It takes 8-12 weeks and thousands of cans of food to create a structure.

The results are displayed to the public as magnificent sculpture exhibits in each city where a competition is held. The public is invited to donate canned food at the time of the exhibition. At the close of the exhibitions all of the canned food used in the structures is donated to local food banks for distribution to emergency feeding programs that include pantries, soup kitchens, elderly and day care centers.

Since its inception, ten million pounds of food has been donated to aid in the fight against hunger. Initiated by the Denver, Seattle and New York Chapters of the SDA in 1992/93, Canstruction^® now has over one hundred and thirty individual competitions scheduled to take place during the 2009-2010 cycle.

Design and Construction Industry professional associations that have partnered with the SDA in organizing local competitions include the American Institute of Architects, the Society for Marketing Professional Services and the International Interior Design Association.