The inaugural Santa Monica CANstruction wrapped up right before Thanksgiving, and what a whirlwind it was. SweisKloss hosted this friendly competition where participating teams HGA, BuroHappold, and SweisKloss were set to “out-creative” one another for a good cause. Each team built a sculpture out of non-perishable foods in the theme of “It’s All Fun and Games at the Beach.” The result was three giant sculptures made of food that would become a giant donation to the Westside Food Bank and Meals on Wheels West.
CANstruction began with Build Night with each team fueled by pizza and the need to see their designs come to life. Awe inspiring doesn’t begin to describe the amount of people power it took to haul, roll, lift, and painstakingly place each can or food item to construct these incredible CANstructures, which were then on display at the Water Garden for the first two weeks of November. What an artistic and memorable way to help raise awareness of hunger issues!
A celebration ceremony took place where awards were presented. The runaway winner with four awards, including “Best Meal”, was HGA with their cleverly titled “Hella Good Accident” sculpture of a popsicle and an ice cream cone upside down in the sand. BuroHappold’s aptly titled “BH Beans” took home the “Best Use of Labels” award for their Beach Ball made of cans of beans. And SweisKloss’ “Can you Hang 10?” sculpture of a wave and surfboard won the prize for “Most Cans”.
DeCANstruction day came too soon and the displays had to be taken down. We were all a little sad to see the structures go but were heartened by the fact that the Westside Food Bank would be picking up the donation of goods a couple days later. And to learn that we donated nearly 5,500 cans and other nonperishable goods, which will become a lot of meals, was very rewarding!
We are so grateful to our sponsors for their generous support in making this event happen! Thank you to Ralphs, Ferguson, Kiwanis Santa Monica, Water Garden, Crisp Imaging, Sweet Lady Jane, and Domino’s! And thank you to the judges, including Lauren Pizer Mains of Senator Ben Allen's office.
