32nd Annual NYC Design and Build Competition
To Benefit City Harvest
Our annual design competition challenges teams of architects, engineers, and contractors to build sculptures made entirely out of canned food. The sculptures are placed on display at the start of the holiday giving season, at Brookfield Place in lower Manhattan. All canned food is later donated to City Harvest to help provide families with a holiday meal.
Established in 1992 by the late Cheri Melillo and SDA New York, CANstruction, Inc. emerged from Cheri’s inspiration drawn from trial competitions in Denver, CO, and Seattle, WA. Cheri, fostering her vision, founded a CANstruction chapter in New York. Originally conceived to unite the design, engineering, and construction industry in a delightful way, it aimed to address hunger by providing canned food to relief organizations. Decades later, CANstruction stands as a testament to Cheri’s enduring vision and the collective commitment to combat hunger through innovative collaboration.
You may also donate to CANstruction below. Your donation supports CANstruction’s programs and exhibitions which raise millions of pounds of food each year for local hunger relief organizations.
Latest News
Canstruction 2024! Call for Entries
We are happy to announce that registration for CANstruction 2024 is now open! Please view the Call For Entries flyer for more information. A few important notes for this year: We are limited to [...]
Critical Deadline/Submission Dates
| Friday, August 16th at 6:00 PM | Call for Entry Deadline All registrations forms and payment must be processed. |
| Wednesday, August 28th 6:00 PM | Team Kickoff Meeting (Zoom) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88647893862?pwd=E2soKqjmb6cRYURU5OJWATCxTdHMDR.1 |
| Friday, September 6th at 6:00 PM | Design Submission Due A detailed drawing or computer rendering with exact dimensions (L, W, H) of your structure in either JPG or PDF format. Do not send CAD files. Email submissions to email@canstructionny.org with the subject line “Structure Submission”. |
| Monday, September 16th at 6:00 PM | COI & Social Media Form Due Submit your office building’s certificate of insurance template. Submit Social Media Form |
| Friday, September 20th at 6:00 PM | Victory Food Service & Goya can order deadline |
| Friday, October 4th at 6:00 PM | Building Information, Structure Contents and Mission Board due Building Information Form Structure Contents Sheet Mission Board Form |
| Week of October 7th | Site & Logistics Meeting in Winter Garden at Brookfield Place – Attendance is mandatory Teams will receive site location assignments at this meeting. Teams are responsible to immediately determine if there will be any problem positioning their entry in the space assigned and must notify the Canstruction Committee immediately if there is any problem with the location. |
| Monday, October 21st – Friday, October 25th | Structure Contents and Build Materials picked-up from teams |
| Monday, October 28th | Structure Contents delivered to Brookfield Place for Build Night |
| Wednesday, October 30th at 6:30 PM | Build Night |
| Thursday, October 31st – Monday, November 11th | Canstruction New York open to the public |
| Monday, November 4th at 6:00 PM |
Judging and Awards Ceremony AIA NY Center for Architecture INVITATION ONLY |
| Monday, November 11th at 6:30 PM | DeCanstruction |
CANstruction New York’s History
Now in its 32nd year of fighting food insecurity, the CANstruction NY competition and exhibition brings together teams of talented architects, engineers, and contractors for one important challenge: to get creative and build 8-foot high x 8-foot wide x 8-foot tall sculptures made entirely out of unopened cans of food. The large-scale sculptures are built and displayed at Brookfield Place (BFPL) in Lower Manhattan before being deconstructed and donated to City Harvest, New York City’s first and largest food rescue organization. Each year, the event results in the largest annual single donation of canned food to City Harvest, and this year’s donations will help reach the organization’s goal of rescuing and delivering more than 77 million pounds of food to soup kitchens and food pantries across New York City.
CANstruction Highlights
Thursday, October 26, 2023
In this special episode highlighting the 31st Annual CANstruction New York Design and Build Competition, Christian sits down with four leaders behind the incredible cause, including Jennifer Greene, Director of Marketing at Ronnette Riley Architect, Elysa Marden, Senior Vice President of Arts and Events for Brookfield Properties, Jenna Harris, City Harvest’s Associate Director as well as Jessica Sheridan, Principal at Mancini Duffy.
Contact Us
All inquiries can be redirected to the Canstruction NY team here.
Presented By
Partners & Sponsors
