CANstruction

ARCHI text Capital Region CANstruction

by Caitlin Daly, AIA, 2021 AIAENY Treasurer Capital Region CANstruction is back for its 11th year. Typically, this annual event would revolve around the design and exhibition of CANstructions at the New York State Museum by teams of architects, engineers, contractors, and students to raise awareness of food insecurities in our community. However, this year Capital Region CANstruction went virtual. Selecting Build Day Teamwork the year Dumbo was built. the theme “Hall of Fame,” participants were asked to create videos highlighting their role in Capital Region CANstruction over the past 10 years. CSArch has one of the longest-tenures having participated every year, and I personally have been involved with our team since I joined the firm. Understanding how important this event is to our community, our team, along with the 10 other dedicated teams signed up for the challenge, we focused our efforts during this CANstruction season on fundraising, knowing that every dollar raised equaled over six pounds of food. While we certainly have missed the opportunity to come together with the rest of the AEC community, our enthusiasm to embrace this new challenge never wavered. My role on the team was as a member of the fundraising committee. We tried to balance our desire to help our community in a safe manner, while still having fun. After a series of discussions, we set a goal, and agreed to hold a few smaller in-house fundraising events including rebuilding a portion of an old build. Several members of the team gathered the supplies, and we set about building Scooby-Doo from our 2017 build - Scooby Doo’s Mystery CAN-

Getting into the spirit of the event by dressing to match the CANsculpture.

chine in our living room. Scooby went up fast. Fastest build I am sure I will ever be a part of. Scooby looked just as proud sitting there over everything we had accomplished as I felt. We had exceeded our goal, and the camaraderie within the team felt the same. All that was missing was the noise within the rest of the space from the other teams building their creations. For that one only has to look at the Capital Region CANstruction Facebook page. Exploring the Capital Region CANstruction Facebook page, the effort of all the teams comes into view. Teams have volunteered and educated youth about food insecurities, volunteered Top: “Wall-C and Eve,” a Juror’s Choice to build CANstructions with the Girls Award Winner and Bottom: Every year, the Scouts of Northeastern New York as CSArch team introduces new challenges to part of CANstruction Jr, and started their sculptures. For Dumbo, it was hanging internal competitions, just to name the ears off the body. a few. Teams are reaching out and finding creative ways to make an impact. Even though there were no grand CANstructions to go visit at the New York State Museum, videos by each team were posted to the Capital Region CANStruction Facebook page on March 2, 2021. Go check out these amazing team’s work and see what volunteering for Capital Region CANstruction means to them at https://www.facebook.com/CapitalRegionCanstruction. The longest CSArch build, finishing up well after the New York State Museum had closed. Awards and information on how much the teams donated this year will be posted by the Capital Region CANstruction in upcoming weeks. The 2021 Capital Region CANstruction teams are: CSArch, kW Mission Critical Engineering, Stantec, Hyman Hayes Associates, AOW/Envision, RPI School of Architecture, McLaren Engineering, Ryan Biggs Clark Davis, MJ Engineering & Surveying, The Chazen Companies/LaBella Associates, and EYP.