Canstruction Event Kicks Off Holiday Food Drive

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Dec. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- CH2M HILL's Albuquerque office recently chaired the fourth annual Albuquerque Canstruction^® event with other local businesses and organizations to benefit Roadrunner Food Bank of New Mexico. Canstruction is a trademarked design-build competition founded by the Society for Design Administration (SDA). The theme for this year's event was "New Mexico Centennial" in honor of the 100th anniversary of New Mexico becoming a state. Held at Sandia Resort, each team had a 10-foot-by-10-foot space and 8 hours to build structures from nonperishable food goods (cans and boxes) they had collected or purchased specially for their Canstruction project. The public was invited to view the structures and vote for their favorite. In keeping with the "construction" theme, each structure was surrounded by orange barrels and yellow caution tape.

The Albuquerque Canstruction competition resulted in 34,580 pounds of food and more than $820 donated to Roadrunner Food Bank to benefit vulnerable populations throughout New Mexico. "The Canstruction event was such a tremendous success and a wonderful kick off to our 2012 Holiday Food Drive activities. It is an honor to receive the nearly 35,000 pounds of food on behalf of the nearly 40,000 hungry clients we help weekly," said Sonya Warwick, Communications Officer of Roadrunner Food Bank. "Thank you so much to CH2M HILL, the committee, the teams, judges and supporters that participated in Canstruction. We are so grateful the time and energy that every single person gave to make this annual event so successful.  The food collected during Canstruction provides important life-changing meals for hungry children, seniors and adults across New Mexico."

CH2M HILL teamed with AUI Inc., PR Newswire and Occam Engineering – known collectively as "Albuquerque 'Dukes' It Out with Hunger" won the Best Use of Labels Award for their baseball diamond-shaped structure featuring the logo of the Albuquerque Dukes (the former, local AAA baseball team and still a fan favorite). The three-sided structure also pictured a baseball, bat, and the word "Dukes" with a Zia symbol.

For the second year in a row, Girl Scouts of New Mexico Trails teamed with Steve Harris, P.E., of Renaissance Engineering LLC to take the Jurors' Favorite trophy. Using various sizes of blue- and brown-labeled cans, the girls built a version of the New Mexico Centennial logo – a Native American clay pot with a large letter "C" on one side.

The Structural Ingenuity award went to Bohannan Huston, Inc.  for their structure of hot air balloons floating past a city landscape. CDM Smith took home the Best Display of Theme trophy for "Best Damstruction" – their depiction of Elephant Butte reservoir, dam and spillway, complete with sardine-can boats "floating" on the "water." A 1950s-model Chevy cruising down Route 66 against a background of mountains – designed and built by staff from Construction Reporter, Bradbury Stamm, Dekker/Perich/Sabatini and Yearout Mechanical – was awarded the Best Meal trophy because the products used in the structure could be used to make a complete meal. The team also won the People's Choice award for the most cash donations at the event – at a penny a vote! Cobb Fendley & Associates was awarded Honorable Mention for their depiction of a vintage Volkswagon bus and an oversized historic Route 66 sign.

The other teams involved in the event were the City of Albuquerque, whose structure depicted a Wright Brothers-era biplane and a modern jet flying through clouds of marshmallows; AMEC Environmental, whose structure depicted the New Mexico flag flying over a Native American pueblo; US Bank, whose structure depicted the Sandia Mountains at sunset with the Sandia Tram traveling up the face; and Jaynes Corporation and ACE Leadership High School, who structure depicted the official New Mexico question, Red or Green? – chile, that is!

Judges for the event were the mayor of Rio Rancho, Tom Swisstack; New Mexico Oil and Gas Association Executive Director and former New Mexico State Senator Kent Cravins; Chief Engineer John D'Antonio of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Albuquerque District; Ian Anderson, Publisher of New Mexico Business Weekly; and Sonya Warwick from Roadrunner Food Bank.

Headquartered near Denver, Colorado, USA, employee-owned CH2M HILL is a global leader in consulting, design, design-build, operations, and program management for government, civil, industrial and energy clients. The firm's work is concentrated in the areas of water, transportation, environmental, energy, facilities and resources. With US$6.4 billion in revenue and 30,000 employees, CH2M HILL is an industry-leading program management, construction management and design firm, as ranked by Engineering News-Record and named a leader in sustainable engineering by Verdantix. The firm has been named a FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For five times. Visit us at www.ch2mhill.com, twitter.com/ch2mhill and facebook.com/ch2mhill.

Contact: Jennifer House
Phone: 505-855-5257
E-Mail: [email protected]

SOURCE CH2M HILL