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KTGY participated in Orange County’s 8th Annual CANstruction design/build at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA and ARTIC in Anaheim, CA. KTGY won an “Honorable Mention” Award for its Star Wars’ Stormtrooper made entirely of canned food items. KTGY’s innovative design and planning capabilities were used to construct an impressive, 7-foot tall Stormtrooper helmet, which was titled “Being the Force Against Hunger.”
KTGY’s team, along with 18 other design teams comprising of local architects, designers and engineers, worked enthusiastically through the night on Friday, September 4th, at South Coast Plaza and ARTIC to assemble their can sculptures. A total of 20 team members, friends and family helped build the Stormtrooper. The build took only 3 hours and 17 minutes to complete, using just over 5,000 cans. Nick Otto, Jakob Awerkamp, Jason Graney and Kirsten Meza served as team leaders for KTGY’s CANstruction design/build event and were assisted by other KTGY designers and staff including: Meredith Ingle, Judy Vega, Salvador Jimenez, Iomara Martinez, Miguel Lopez, Jennifer Crump, Jeremy Schmit, Itzel Meynard, Sevan Simonian, Tyler Hamil, Sonia Lopez, Blake Thompson, Nika Imani and Diane Yabut. Other important volunteers from KTGY included: David Senden, Renee Barot, Maro Terry, Tim Seiden, Geoff Gudelman, Tiffany Brown, Lara McKissick, Jessica Candaele, Brian Kosier, Casey Roberts, Christine Atienza, Ben Kasdan and Remy Fukuda.
KTGY supported the fundraising effort with a substantial donation and team members reached out to the firm’s clients and consultants to raise additional funds. The team also organized a fundraising event hosted by Thermador at its showroom in Irvine, CA. With close to 50 people in attendance, the event raised another several hundred dollars for the structure. The Stormtrooper cost more than $7,000 in canned food and building supplies.
The CANstruction design/build competition serves as a canned food drive to support the Orange County Food Bank, which has collected around 500,000 cans of food and raised $75,000 in the past seven years. At the close of the exhibition, all of the canned food items used in these structures are distributed to shelters, soup kitchens and other emergency feeding programs.
A special thanks to all of our sponsors:
- KTGY
- Thermador
- Cultured Stone by Boral
- First Circle Design
- Gill Reprographics
- Milgard Windows & Doors
- ARC Document Solutions
- Crossville
- Michele Morse (Eagle)
- MJ Design Group, Inc.
- Schnackel Engineers
- Monaghan Communications
- Walmart
- Lowes
