CONTACTS:
Andrea Helms
Communications Director
Tarrant Area Food Bank
817-332-9177
Julie Meeks
Society for Design Administration Canstruction 2007 Chairwoman Frank W. Neal & Associates
817-332-1944

CANstruction® Design/Build Competition and Show open to public

Oct. 14 - 20, 2007

         FORT WORTH--In Tarrant County, teams of architects and engineers are designing gigantic structures to be constructed entirely with full cans and boxes of food. The only limitations to their creativity are their imaginations, the colors on food boxes and labels of cans and the size requirements of no larger than 10 feet square by 8 feet high. Their goal: To win an award in the 2007 Canstruction® Competition and help fight local hunger, one can at a time.

        This year, 14 teams will build their super-sized structures Sunday, Oct. 14, between 9 a.m. and about 3 p.m. at North East Mall at I-820 and Bedford-Euless Road in Hurst. The PUBLIC IS INVITED TO WATCH as the teams defy expectations, logic and gravity to construct their unconventional masterpieces from thousands of boxes and cans of food.

        Titles of the sculptures offer intriguing double meanings and indirect references to the content of the sculptures as with "It is a-MAIZE-ing what CORN can fuel," "Melt Away Global Hunger," "Here's the SCOOP, Tell Hunger to Chill" and "You 'TOO CAN' Help Fight Hunger."

        On Monday, Oct. 15, local experts and celebrities will judge the entries for the awards of Best Use of Labels, Best Meal, Structural Integrity and Jurors' Favorite.

        The 2007 Canstruction® Competition and Show will be on display at the mall, free of charge, Sunday evening, Oct. 14, through Saturday, Oct. 20.

          In past years, some of the local structures have won awards at the national Canstruction® competition. All Canstruction® competitions are done under the auspices of the Society for Design Administration and its Canstruction® Foundation.

          Locally, the competition and show is organized each year by the Fort Worth chapters of the Society for Design Administration and the American Institute of Architects.

        When Canstruction® is dismantled, the food will be donated to Tarrant Area Food Bank, the regional food bank serving 300 hunger-relief charities in 13 counties around Fort Worth. From the past eight Tarrant County competitions more than 399,000 pounds of food have gone to this local food bank.

         The volunteer Canstruction® teams in Tarrant County this year are from: ARLINGTON--LBL Architects, Sterling Barnett Little, Tarrant County College Southeast and VLK Architects; and FORT WORTH--Carter-Burgess, Franz Jeanes Lazo Cora & Associates, Frank W. Neal & Associates, Freese and Nichols, Gideon Toal, Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford Architects, HKS, Huckabee & Associates, Quorum Architects and TranSystems Corporation Consultants.

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