Gensler’s “What’s Up, Doc?” CANsculpture consists of 5,932 cans (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Brookfield Place
250 Vesey St.
Daily through November 16, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-945-0505
brookfieldplaceny.com
www.sdanyc.org/canstruction
canstruction nyc slideshow
The twenty-third annual Canstruction NYC Design/Build Competition is under way at Brookfield Place, although they’re a little trickier to find this year than in the past, when they lined the Winter Garden. The architectural battle and fundraiser — visitors are asked to bring a can of high-quality, nonperishable food to donate — features more than two dozen creative structures built by teams referencing the international hunger crisis. As always, the overall construction is best viewed through a camera, but get up close and personal with the naked eye to see how ingenious many of the intricate designs are. You can vote for your favorite here. Among the impressive competitors are HOK’s “Presidential CANdidates,” Thornton Tomasetti’s “Wall Street Charging Bull,” Severud Associates’ “Spanning the Hungry Rapids,” GACE Consulting Engineers’ “The Butterfly Effect: How Far CAN Kindness Go?,” RAND Engineering & Architecture’s “Pipe Down Hunger,” and WJE Engineers & Architects’ “Yoshi’s Soup’er Mission,” although it will be mighty tough to beat out Gensler’s “What’s Up, Doc?” At the end of the competition, the structures are taken apart and the cans donated to City Harvest, so come on by, bring some nonperishable items, and help CANstruction raise upwards of 100,000 cans of food. On November 12 from 12 noon to 3:00, Jenny McCoy, a chef-instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education and author of Desserts for Every Season, will host a free presentation and tasting (of sweets made with canned food) next to Hudson Eats, right near several of the CANsculptures.