By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian | Posted: Wednesday, April 7, 2010 10:20 pm 

 

  Nick Salmon, right, an architect with CTA Architects in Missoula, donated his time and expertise to the project. “One of the good things about this is they have to think on their feet now that they’re actually building a bridge.” Photo by MICHAEL GALLACHER/Missoulian

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Designing a structure on a computer and paper is one thing.

Bringing that structure to life is quite another. Especially when the construction medium is cans.

That's where students in Victor Loya's intermediate drafting class at Sentinel High School found them

  
Designing a structure on a computer and paper is one thing.

Bringing that structure to life is quite another. Especially when the construction medium is cans.

That's where students in Victor Loya's intermediate drafting class at Sentinel High School found themselves Wednesday morning.

"Well, it's not turning out exactly the way we envisioned it," said David Butler, a 16-year-old sophomore.

In part, that's because cans probably aren't the best thing to build a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge with.

But cans of food are the symbolism that undergirds the reasoning behind the project.

The Sentinel construction project is part of a larger "Canstruction" project, which is itself part of a larger, nationwide project that gathers both money and food for food banks and pantries.

In Montana, the beneficiary is the Montana Food Bank Network, which provides food and support to about 190 hunger relief efforts across the state.

"For us, the ‘Canstruction' really serves two purposes," said the Food Bank Network's Tirzah Juskalian. "Just from the projects alone, we got 15,000 cans of food last year. This year we'll probably double that."

But the event also serves to bring awareness to the Montana's hunger problem. One in three Montanans is at risk of being hungry, Juskalian said.

"This is a way to share what we're doing with people," she said.

***

This year's event - which will feature the "Canstruction" projects at Southgate Mall - has eight teams participating.

Each team works with a local architect and constructs a structure of its choice. Sentinel's team did a practice build on Wednesday, but the final projects will go up at the mall between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Friday.

The Sentinel team pondered a variety of potential projects before settling on the Golden Gate Bridge.

"The concept is bridging the gap to those in need," said Loya, whose eight students have been working on the bridge while also doing two other classroom projects.

"This has really kept them busy, but I think they've enjoyed the fact that they're taking part in something that has an element of community service to it," Loya said.

That element is part of the pleasure, said Shane Caye, a 15-year-old sophomore.

"It's nice to know it's all for a good cause," Caye said.

In addition to construction skills, the students had to raise money and do outreach in the community to find sponsors. Ultimately, all the food was either donated or bought.

Best of all, it will eventually go to hungry Montanans.

For now, though, those giant cans of tomatoes are forming bridge abutments for stacked towers of tomato soup, which are spanned with apple juice cans and cabled with slender packages of jerky. Beneath lies a roadway of Ramen noodles.

"It's sort of hard to understand how the cans and jerky are going to work when you're working on the computer," said Butler. "I don't think anyone could really have imagined how it might work out."

Actually, though, architect Nick Salmon had some ideas. He's worked with other "Canstruction" projects and knows both their joys and their perils.

"One of the good things about this is that they have to think on their feet now that they're actually building the bridge," said Salmon, who works at CTA Architects. "And that's an excellent, real-life lesson."

Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com.

Original article: http://www.missoulian.com/news/local/article_79a9efd4-42c7-11df-9e28-001cc4c002e0.html

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