Canstruction NYC 2011, Through Monday, November 21 Only!
Attentive Glenwood readers already know that we’re big Canstruction NYC fans, having gone to Canstruction in 2009 and Canstruction in 2010 at the World Financial Center. For those unfamiliar, Canstruction is an architecture/engineering extravaganza, for which some of the city’s top firms design and construct fabulously elaborate, often whimsical sculptural structures made entirely of cans of food. The pieces are always pretty amazing, like SOM’s Town Upside Down, above, made from 2,950 cans (it is a contest, after all, and architects and engineers are famously competitive), but the best part of Canstruction is that when the exhibition is over all of the tens of thousands of cans used as construction material–more than 60,000 pounds of food in all!–gets donated to City Harvest, to be distributed to the NYC families and individuals that need it most.
Anyway, we went to Canstruction 2011 on opening day last week, in the World Financial Center, and, as usual, were totally impressed. Sure, a few of the 26 pieces had been done before (the Brooklyn Bridge, the Walk/Don’t Walk sign, this year built by CentraRuddy using 2,060 cans), and there was some repetition even within this year’s contest (Angry Birds, Alexander McQueen’s Lobster Claw shoe), but still, because it’s a free event, all done for charity (and for fun!), AND it’s very cool, Canstruction has become one of our fall rituals. Here’s a few of the pieces we liked most in Canstruction 2011:
NepTUNA the HippoCANpus Against Hunger by Gilsanz Murray Steficek LLP (2,150 cans)
High-Tops for Hunger! by Thornton Tomasetti (2,830 cans)
Time to End Hunger by Langan Engineering & John Fotiadis Architect (1,950 cans)
Alexander McCan by Kohn Pederson Fox Associates PC (3,600 cans)
TiCANic by Robert Silman Associates (2,260 cans)
Strike Out Hunger by Eleanor Roosevelt High School/Sandra Forman Architect (4,041 cans)
Hungry Birds by Ennead Architects (5,110 cans)
Canstruction NYC 2011 details
Canstruction 2011 will be showing from now through Monday, November 21, within the World Financial Center Complex – Winter Garden, at 200 Vesey Street in Battery Park City. The Canstruction 2011 exhibition is open to the public daily from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. For (slightly) more information, please see the Canstruction NYC 2011 website, here.
Posted in NYC Events | Tagged canstruction • Canstruction 2011 • Canstruction New York • Canstruction NYC • Canstruction NYC 2011 • City Harvest • World Financial Center
