LaBella Builds Human Cell Structure for 2024 Capital Region CANstruction Competition

More than 2,400 items will be donated to Capital Region food pantries.

Team LaBella has been working under a microscope in recent months! Staff from the Albany and Glens Falls offices planned, designed, and built their 2024 Capital Region CANstructure and will donate more than 2,400 food and personal care items to Capital Region food pantries.

CANstruction is a global not-for-profit organization that addresses hunger globally. Capital Region CANstruction is an annual exhibit and design competition that brings AEC professionals together to create colossal structures built entirely out of canned goods. Every can and dollar are donated to The Food Pantries for the Capital District.

The 2024 Capital Region CANstruction theme was Dream STEAM: If you CAN Dream it, STEAM it (STEAM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math). Team LaBella took it back to basic biology. Five months of brainstorming, designing, fundraising, and coordinating produced The Mighty Chondrion, a human cell structure standing at 3 ½ feet tall and 8 feet wide. Canned beats and jarred oranges make up the nucleus, peanut butter for the lysosome, bagged rice as the Golgi apparatus, JELL-O for the endoplasmic reticulum, and travel shampoo as ribosomes. The structure embraces the STEAM theme while highlighting the importance food plays in the health of a human cell.

The exhibit is on display until May 20th at Crossgates Mall in Albany, New York.

Congratulations to Team LaBella!