Canstruction at Brookfield Place in Lower Manhattan, NYC: Can Sculptures on View Through Nov. 9

Canstruction, the annual design competition in which teams of architects, engineers and contractors build sculptures entirely from unopened cans of food, returns to Brookfield Place at 230 Vesey Street in Lower Manhattan. The finished works are shown to the public and later donated to City Harvest, New York's first and largest food rescue organization.

The live build is on Thursday, October 29. It starts at 10 a.m. in the Winter Garden and takes roughly six to eight hours. This year's builders are the collaborative team of Design Park and West Collection. The exhibition then runs Friday, October 30 through Monday, November 9, daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., closing at 6 p.m. on the final night.

Competing teams include Arup, Beyer Blinder Belle, Buro Happold, Gensler, HOK, Perkins Eastman, Thornton Tomasetti and WSP USA, among others. The jurors include Ben Van Leeuwen, co-founder and CEO of Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, and Todd Yamamoto, Director of Operations for the Parm brand at Major Food Group, along with representatives from Arcadis and the Center for Architecture and the creator of the @TheMeganDaily channel.

Visitors can take part in several ways. An information table in the Winter Garden accepts canned-food donations from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. A "People's Choice" vote for a favorite sculpture is planned, with the link to come. Kids' activity sheets with questions and activities are available for the exhibition.

Educational tours need pre-registration through Eventbrite, and space is limited. They are scheduled for Saturday, October 31 at 11 a.m., Wednesday, November 4 at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, November 5 at noon, and Saturday, November 7 at 11 a.m.

The organizer's photos show how teams use can labels as a color palette, including a Stitch-like character and a fire engine built with a heavy "Five Alarm Fight Against Hunger" theme. Canstruction New York is a 501(c)(3) organization founded by the Society for Design Administration, which supports management professionals in the architecture, engineering and construction industries.