CULTURE

22nd Annual Canstruction New York

The world’s most imaginative food charity will return to Brookfield Place in November  with a cornucopia of whimsical, inspiring and spectacular sculptures made of unopened canned food that will then be  donated to City Harvest for distribution to some 500 soup kitchens and food pantries across New York City.

Now in its 22nd year, the Canstruction® exhibition and competition raises hunger awareness by challenging 27 teams of New York City’s top architecture and engineering design firms and students they mentor to transform more than 100,000 full cans of food into larger-than-life pop art masterpieces in the Winter Garden and 250 Vesey Street lobby of Brookfield Place.

This gravity-defying feast for the eyes will be on view to the public from November 6 to November 20 in what has become one of the fall’s most beloved exhibitions. While admission is free, visitors are encouraged to bring high-quality, non-perishable cans of food (such as tuna, beans, and canned vegetables) which will be donated, along with the cans used in the competition, to City Harvest.

Now serving New York City for more than 30 years, City Harvest is the world’s first food rescue organization that works with Canstruction® each Thanksgiving season to distribute canned goods to New Yorkers in need. After last year’s 21st Annual Competition, City Harvest collected over 79,000 pounds of food, helping feed more than 26,000 hungry families in New York City for a day.

Each team spends months planning and designing their entries, but are only allowed one adrenaline-filled night to meticulously stack and color coordinate cans into ingenious and playful feats of design and engineering. Participants will vie for top honors in categories including Best Use of Labels, Best Meal, Structural Ingenuity, Most Cans, and Jurors’ Favorite. Winners are chosen by an elite team of judges culled from the architectural, design and culinary fields. The public will vote for the People’s Choice Award via Facebook.

In addition to the competition, highlights from last year will be reconstructed in the lobbies of Brookfield Office Properties locations throughout the city, where they will be on view from October 27 through November 14: Grace Building located at 1114 Avenue of the Americas will display “Apple Tree”; 245 Park Avenue will showcase “Once Upon A Can”; and One Liberty Plaza at 165 Broadway will present “Patience and Fortitude”.