Shown above(from left) are:  LERA’s Canstruction team Elias Matar, Amit Nambiar, juror Guy Geier of FXFOWLE, Eddy Roberts, Magen Mintz and Evram Dawd.

New York, NY According to Leslie E. Robertson Associates (LERA), their entry for the 25th anniversary of Canstruction New York, titled “A Rising Tide,” was named Best Original Design (formerly Jurors’ Favorite) at the Canstruction Awards Gala on Monday, November 6th at Battery Gardens Restaurant. This is the top prize in the competition.

This year, LERA’s all-volunteer team dedicated countless hours of their free time to design and construct an 8-ft sailboat made from over 4,000 sardine cans, which will be donated to City Harvest, a local food charity. Their title, “A Rising Tide,” is in reference to the famous slogan, “A rising tide lifts all boats,” a timely reminder that when we give to those in need, everyone in the community benefits.

The sails of the boat’s structure were made possible by a support system consisting of internal vertical cans and alignment rods. A combination of manual craftsmanship (for the larger layer boards) and CNC machine routing (for more complex cuts) was used to produce the shape of each layer. Prior to construction, LERA’s team used IMMERSIFY to bring their 3D model into Virtual Reality in order to preview how it would look and make live, precise adjustments to the positioning of each can.

Canstruction is an international charity competition where architects, engineers, contractors and students compete to design and build giant structures made entirely from unopened cans of food, which are then donated to local food banks. Since first entering the competition in 2002, LERA has won 12 awards and donated nearly 60,000 canned goods and food items to local charities, helping to feed over 10,000 New Yorkers in need.

Leslie E. Robertson Associates (LERA) is an M/WBE structural engineering firm providing services to architects, owners, contractors and developers. Since their founding in 1923, they have designed numerous landmark projects across the world and have established a strong reputation for design and technical excellence. Today, LERA’s talented professionals continue the tradition of creating innovative yet constructible and economical structural designs. Headquartered in New York City, LERA also operates branch offices in Mumbai, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Supple LLC was created for architects, engineers, designers, artists and developers by LERA’s internal Research and Development group, LERA+, whose focus is on informing better design decisions through the use of the latest technologies.