Cheri C. Melillo, Hon AIA
CANstruction National Executive Director

Summary: At local Canstruction® competitions held in cities across North America this past year, animal-themed sculptures took center stage as many teams designed entries that focused on the increased threat the animal kingdom faces from global warming. Frogs, each delightfully unique, along with whales, penguins, birds, honeybees, bears, cows, octopus, scorpions, snakes, and even the lowly worm, vied for top honors when a prestigious jury convened in Boston this past May at the SDA and AIA annual conventions to declare six winners from a field of hundreds of local winners that went on to compete via photography at the International level.

“An UnBEARable Truth,” by New York City architecture and interior design firm Butler Rogers Baskett, took Jurors’ Favorite with a moving depiction of two stranded polar bears—one trapped on a tiny ice flow with its head stretched skyward, while the other struggled to stay afloat in the water, no land in sight. In addition to its sculptural and structural purity, the jury stated it was the perfect metaphor for global warming and commended the entry for addressing
the interspecies issue.

The Structural Ingenuity award went to Levelton Consultants, Ltd. from Vancouver with their gravity defying “A Breach in Hunger.” This stunner, a giant Orca whale thrusting itself above the waves, had cantilevered fins that seemed to float above the surface of the water.

Not all the entries were of animals. Other top honors went to equally provocative structures. Best Use of Labels went to JCJ Architecture in New York City. Playing off the popular best seller, “The Da Vinci Code,” they rendered Mona Lisa’s face in two separate sections with “DeCoding Hunger.” The jury was impressed by its very painterly style and conceptual complexity. The team was able to pixilate the most famous eyes and mouth in the world, put an abstract twist on it, and have it hold up.

Another impressive entry and winner of the Best Meal award was “A Different Perspective,” by Fort Worth team Hahnfeld, Hoffer, Stanford. A rendering of the Triumphal Arch, the structure could be viewed from any side and was equally impressive from all sides.

Two Honorable Mention local winners went on to win it at the international level. “Face of Hunger” by DMJM Design in Los Angeles, used 9,000 cans of sparkling orange juice to create a universal face of hunger as a pin-pression image. The jury valued this entry for its simplicity of vision, elegance, three dimensionality and seriousness of intent. “D-Can-A”, by Gilsanz Murray Steficek, LLP of New York City, also won an Honorable Mention with a structurally complex strand of DNA that showed dynamism and movement.

A Most Cans award is given each year to the local winning structure that incorporated the largest number of canned foods. This year’s winner, with a staggering 18,291 cans, is NK Architects of New Jersey with “Big Bird and Oscar.”