Incredible Creations Built Using More Than 50,000 Cans Of Food To Be Donated To The San Francisco Food Bank

Online, June 23, 2011 (Newswire.com) - What does Giants pitcher Brian Wilson's beard and 3,000 cans of tuna have in common? Both were used in the debut appearance of San Francisco first ever Canstruction. The event kicked off with teams of architects, engineers and contractors constructing 13 unique, giant-sized objects made entirely out of canned food depicting "The Spirit of San Francisco". With the structures comes a donation of more than 50,000 cans of food to the San Francisco Food Bank - enough to provide thousands of meals for those at risk of hunger.

The designs are on view and open to the public at no cost at the Metreon's City View, Fourth Floor, 101 Fourth Street, San Francisco, through June 26 (11 AM to 7 PM). Visitors of the exhibit are encouraged to bring a canned food donation for the Food Bank. The food collected at the exhibit will be a boon to the Food Bank, which has seen a 32 percent increase in demand for food assistance in the past year.

"Canstruction a unique way to collect food and it provides a visual perspective of the issue of hunger in our community," said Paul Ash, Executive Director of the San Francisco Food Bank. "Food from the event will helps us make steps towards meeting the needs of those seeking assistance. This is particularly important during the summer months when schools aren't open. Families who depend on school meals for their children are faced with having to stretch their food budget even further and will turn to the Food Bank for assistance."

At the Metreon, the giant structures were erected on Tuesday, June 21 and the awards ceremony and reception was held on Wednesday, June 22. The following awards were given as determined by judges Brian Boitano, Food Network star and Olympic Champion Figure Skater, Corey Lee, owner and chef at award-winning Benu, Peter Pfau, Architect and Principal at Pfau Long Architecture, Mark Bley, President and CEO of Dome Construction, Laura Blumenfeld of Interior Architecture & Design Department at Academy of Art University, Mark Moore, Structural Engineer and Principal at ZFA Structural Engineers and Frank Mallicoat, KPIX Morning News Anchor.

Awards:
Best Use of Labels: Bay Area Rapid CANsportation, Arup North America, Ltd
Best Meal: Chillin at FisherCANs Wharf, Gensler/Glumac
Structural Ingenuity: The Heart of the City, Bull Stockwell Allen, Architecture + Planning / Tipping Mar + Associates / Charles Pankow Builders
Juror's Favorite: The Little Engine that CAN, Crome Architecture
Honorable Mention: Fear the Beard, Fulcrum Structural Engineering and Feldman Architecture
Honorable Mention: I left my Art In San Francisco, The Design Partnership and McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.
Honorable Mention: Gate to Chinatown at Grant Avenue, KMD, DPR Rutherfore+Chekene and M+NLB
Honorable Mention: Historic Castro Theatre, Degenkolb Engineers
The Jury's Favorite of the competition, The Little Engine that CAN by Crome Architecture will move on to compete in the national Canstruction competition.

Since 1992, Canstruction events have contributed more than 15 million pounds of food to community food banks across North America.