It took hours to erect monuments out of non-perishables, and less than an hour for it to all come down. Earlier this month, Canstruction DC closed out its most bountiful year to date by collecting 56,578 pounds of food and raising $8517 for feeding families in need.
Into its 20th year nationally and 2nd at the National Building Museum, Canstruction is an annual design competition in which regional architectural firms square off by building structures out of canned goods. Once the event is over, all food and donations go to the Capital Area Food Bank.
This year multiple awards were handed out to the following firms:
- Jurors’ Favorite: “One Small Step for a Can, One Giant Leap to End Hunger” by Wiencek + Associates, Architects + Planners
- Best Use of Labels: “Grand CANyon” by Barnes Vanze Architects, Inc.
- Structural Ingenuity: “A Colorful Meal of Golden Proportions” by Perkins + Will
- Best Meal: “A Colorful Meal of Golden Proportions” by Perkins + Will
- Honorable Mention: “CAN You Hear Me Now?” by Cannon Design
- Honorable Mention: “Grand CANyon” by Grimm & Parker Architects
- Jurors’ Special Recognition: “All You Need is LOVE” by EYP
- People’s Choice Award: “To CAN-finity and Beyond!” by Leo A Daly
However, all participants are bona fide hunger champions and deserve a shout out for the time, money and labor that went into all their canstructions. Moreover, the teams did an incredible job of raising awareness of the Capital Area Food Bank through their own fundraising pages.
In addition, thanks to all the sponsors for making this event successful with special mention going to Safeway. Not only did Safeway provide a generous discount for the teams’ building materials, but they also assisted teams logistically to ensure that food labels matched the teams’ building specifications. Understand that Safeway’s employees are hardly trained to build multi-colored minarets out of canned goods. Yet, they deftly managed the design challenges with great expedience.
Other great sponsors were:
- Builders’ Ball
- National Building Museum
- TW Perry
- NRI
- B&G
- Erin Kelleher Photography
If you were unable to see Canstruction at the Building Museum, you can see all the monuments here. And though we’re sad to see the monuments go, everyone at the Capital Area Food Bank is very happy to immediately put all the donated food and funds to use. Thanks again to everyone involved in making Canstruction DC a great event. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for next year.