Boston – The winners of the 2023 Canstruction Boston design/build competition were recently announced. This year’s event, organized by Society for Marketing Professional Services, Boston Chapter (SMPS Boston), brought together seven teams to design and construct structures made entirely out of cans of food. The event benefits the Merrimack Valley Food Bank (MVFB) and this year’s competition theme was “Celebrating New England!”
Canstruction Boston 2023 Winners:
Best Meal: Prellwitz Chilinski Associates (PCA) for “New England Runs on Donatin'”
Best Use of Labels: Wentworth Institute of Technology CM Club for “West Quoddy Head Lighthouse”
Structural Ingenuity: Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger (SGH) for “Fluffin’ Fantastic: A Recipe to End Hunger”
Best Original Design: Nitsch Engineering for “A BeaCAN of Nourishment”
Most Cans: SGH for “Fluffin’ Fantastic: A Recipe to End Hunger” with 3,039 cans
Honorable Mention: CUBE 3 for “New England Runs on dunCAN – A Modern Boston Tea Party”
People’s Choice: Wentworth Institute of Technology CM Club for “West Quoddy Head Lighthouse”
Social Media Soup-er Star: Wilson Butler Architects for 58 Instagram posts that raise awareness about the event and fighting hunger
Fluffin’ Fantastic: A Recipe to End Hunger
In total, this year’s Canstruction Boston resulted in 14,465 cans and items donated to the MVFB, which will help in the organization’s mission to provide nutritious food to the over 60,000 people served by its network of 120 food pantries, meal programs, and partner agencies each month.
Kelly Proulx, director of communications & public relations at MVFB, said, “We are so grateful for our ongoing partnership with Canstruction Boston, which has provided nearly 600,000 pounds of food (or nearly 462,000 meals) since 2011, in addition to significant financial support! Food insecurity rates are continuing to grow in our region, making the work we do more important than ever. The support from Canstruction Boston helps fill our shelves during the times of the year when food drives are infrequent, and we are so thankful that you share our vision to make sure no member of our community has to go to bed hungry!”
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West Quoddy Head Lighthouse
The judges for the 2023 awards competition represented the AEC community:
- Bill Aalerud, executive vice president at Columbia Construction and chair of Associated General Contractors of Massachusetts (AGC MA)
- Lateffa Curry, marketing associate at The S/L/A/M Collaborative and a director of Professional Women in Construction, Boston Chapter (PWC Boston)
- Shannon Koop, strategic marketing manager at SCS Engineers and president of SMPS Boston
- Andrea Love, principal/director of Building Science at Payette and president of the Boston Society of Architects (BSA)
- Colleen Moore, president of City Point Partners and president of American Council of Engineering Companies of Massachusetts (ACEC/MA)
