CANstruction builds community

The 12th annual American Institute of Architects of Northern Nevada CANstruction took place March 4-8 at Meadowood Mall.

Eleven teams participated, including four student teams, building structures out of canned food in a competition to benefit the Food Bank of Northern Nevada.

The teams built their designs on Wednesday and they were judged Thursday afternoon by a panel of four jurors. Awards were given for Structural Ingenuity, Best Meal, Best Use of Labels and Juror’s Favorite.

The Reno CANstructors will also compete for two locally based awards. The Ric Licata CAN DO Award is judged and awarded by Shana Licata and given to the team that best exemplifies team spirit and cooperation, and the public chooses a People’s Choice award.

Each team designs a structure that they will create out of canned food that will be judged, viewed and finally donated to the hungry in the community through the Food Bank of Northern Nevada.

“I love seeing the student teams working with the architects and solving the puzzle together,” said Fred Graham, architect with the Worth Group and CANstruction committee chairman for northern Nevada.

“I’ve been involved with this event locally since the beginning and students and architects learn so much from each other every year.”