Lawrence architect Donna Griffin admits that building structures out of canned goods is not her specialty, but she is willing to give it a try for a good cause.

Five Lawrence architectural firms are teaming with five Lawrence youth groups for Canstruction, a unique food drive that will benefit six area food pantries.

Architects will work with youth group members from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. today at CornerBank, 4621 W. Sixth St., to build a structure using cans of food.

Residents can vote for their favorite structure by placing money in a jar next to their design of choice. Donations will be accepted through April 30, a day before the structures will be disassembled. The youth group with the winning design will receive the money.

The canned items used to build the structures — estimated at 5,000 — will be donated to area food shelters. The architectural firms and other donors paid for the canned food.

Learning how to build with cans is not easy.

“It has been kind of tricky,” said Griffin, an architect with Lawrence-based Gould Evans Associates. “It basically has been a process of excitement and intimidation.”

The Gould Evans team, which is paired with the Trinity Episcopal Church Youth Group, is building a Jamaican flag in honor of the youth group’s pending missionary trip to Jamaica.

Other teams are getting even more elaborate. The GLPM Architects team, which is paired with the First Presbyterian Church Youth Leadership Team, is building a model of the Mars rover.

Kayla Phillips, 13, left, and Joey Berger, 13, both members of Trinity Episcopal Church Youth Group, work on their Canstruction project. They worked Friday on designing a Jamaican flag at the church. The youth group will team with Gould Evans Associates today to build a flag at CornerBank, 4621 W. Sixth St.

“It has been fun,” said David Vance, an architect with GLPM. “I enjoy building anything, and the fact that it is with cans is just an additional challenge. You don’t get to do that every day.”

The event is one of about 50 across the country sponsored by the Society of Design Administration. It is the first time Lawrence architecture firms have participated. Carrie Mabee, marketing coordinator for Gould Evans, said the Lawrence event was different than most because it involved youth groups.

“Most of the time it is just the architects doing this, but we wanted to put a different spin on it and get youth groups involved and provide a mentoring opportunity,” Mabee said.

Griffin said she thought the event had been beneficial for the youths, who are mostly high school students. She said her group had been getting together on a weekly basis for about a month to discuss design ideas and to create a plan for building the structure.

That’s involved everything from going to the grocery store to research the colors of different cans to computing mathematical formulas to figure out how many cans are needed.

“They’ve taken a great deal of pride in what they’re doing,” Griffin said. “Even if they don’t want to be an architect, it is good to see kids working together.”

Area food pantries also are excited about the project. The six pantries are each expected to receive about 800 cans.

“That’s going to be pretty wonderful,” said Christine Woods, a volunteer receptionist at the Salvation Army. “That’s a big donation for us.”