2009-04-17

Canstruction Sponsorship

The Mills Group sponsored Fairmont State University's student chapter of the Architecture Institute of America at West Virginia's 2009 Canstruction event at the Clay Center for the Arts in Charleston last February. Our donation helped to purchase some of the 2,200 cans the students used to build a modular man for the charity event. The design is based on Swiss architect Le Corbusier's study of proportionality. "We decided to do that since we are architecture students," chapter secretary Meagan Pauley said. The corresponding theme of the project was Downsizing Hunger.

The design garnered the students an Architectural Theory award. The competitive field of eight included architectural and engineering companies, professional organizations and other students.

When they returned to Fairmont, the students donated all their cans to the Fairmont Soup Opera. "We not only had the opportunity to lend a helping hand to our community but we had a wonderful experience," Pauley commented.

Canstruction is a continental charity event that takes place annually in U.S and Canadian cities. Since its founding in the early 1990s in Denver, Seattle and New York Canstruction has grown to include more than 100 participating cities. Over 10 million pounds of food has been donated to emergency food providers such as food banks, pantries and soup kitchens. The design/build competition challenges participants to make a statement about hunger in a sculpture made entirely of full cans of food.