Cooking may be an art, but in the case of Canstruction R.I.'s second sculpture competition, art is, literally, food. Six sculptures that teams of architectural and construction professionals designed and built from about $30,000 worth of canned goods (20,000 items) became food recently when the exhibitors disassembled their creations to donate to the R.I. Community Food Bank.
The cleverly titled and innovative sculptures, designed around the theme "Help stop hunger. One can." had been on exhibit for two weeks at the Providence Place mall to help inspire public awareness and support for alleviating the plight of the increasing numbers of Rhode Islanders unable to afford enough food. The exhibit was the second Canstruction R.I. event that the Young Constructors Forum of the R.I. Associated General Contractors and the American Institute of Architects of Rhode Island have organized under the auspices of the Society for Design Administration as a joint public service activity.
Canstruction Rhode Island organizers and the R.I. Community Food Bank honored the exhibitors, sponsors and organizing partners at a gala on Sept. 24, in the Providence Place mall exhibit space. At the gala, mayor David Cicilline presented awards presented awards to teams in various categories.
Six Canstruction R.I. teams participated in this year's competition. The sculptures, the firms whose employee teams created them, and the awards were:
* "Extinguish Hunger" - Saccoccio & Associates
Two awards: "Juror's Favorite" and "Best Meal"
* "Stay-Puft Marshmellow Can" - Lerner | Ladds + Bartels/Odeh Engineers/Shawmut Design and Construction. "Structural Ingenuity"
* "Drive-In to End Hunger" - Dimeo Construction Company
"Best Use of Labels"
* "Lighting a Fire for Hunger" - Donald Powers Architects
"Honorable Mention
* "Who Can Recycle?" - Newport Collaborative Architects
* "The Providence Skyline - Casting a Shadow on Hunger" - Robinson Green Beretta/Gilbane Building Co.
Photographs of those in four categories (excluding "Honorable Mention") will be submitted to the National Canstruction competition to be held at the 2009 AIA convention.
"We hope that even more design professionals and construction firms will team up to create additional innovative sculptures in next year's competition," said Michael Busam, vice president of RIAGC's Young Constructors Forum and a project engineer at Gilbane Building Co.
Busam is co-chairing the event with Drayton Fair, AIA, ALA, LEED AP, a member of AIA Rhode Island and a partner at Lerner | Ladds + Bartels.
Major sponsors for the exhibit and gala included AIA Rhode Island, RIAGC and Roger Williams University. Organizing partners were the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, Providence Place, Service Point and Sandy Connors Art Direction. Additional sponsors included Herman Miller, Construction Specifications Institute-RI, Synet, Inc., Cardi's Furniture, Creative Office Environments, Inkwell Communications, Whole Foods Market, Stop & Shop, WEEI-Providence, and Sterling Moving and Storage.

Jurors who selected the sculptures for awards were: John Maeda, president, Rhode Island School of Design; Eileen Hayes, executive director, Amos House; Daniel Baudouin, Providence Foundation; George Born, executive director, Providence Preservation Society; and Pat Germani, territory manager, Herman Miller. Also, Craig Gorris, general manager, Providence Place; Thomas Deller, director, City of Providence Planning Department; Andrew Thurlow, professor, Roger Williams University School of Architecture, Art & Historic Preservation; and Maria G. Smith, RA, CSI, second vice president, Construction Specifications Institute-Rhode Island.