Real estate developers acted as mentors for construction of replica buildings
It was one Mississauga student’s replica of the Absolute World Towers — known as the Marilyn Monroe Towers — that got Mayor Carolyn Parrish thinking of the idea for a construction challenge.
“This all started with one student trying to boost his art mark by creating a copy of the Marilyn building,” Mayor Parrish said. “[The replica] came to council last year and I kept looking at it and thinking if one kid can do this can you imagine what a 100 kids can do.”
And so the idea of the Mayor’s Building Challenge came to be, with the inaugural edition of the replica construction competition happening on May 1 at City Hall.
Students from across the city were invited to register for the event. They teamed up in groups of three and chose a notable building somewhere in the city to build a replica model.
They were given a set amount of time to complete the project, with all materials provided to them and made available on site. They were given plywood, wooden dowels, balsa wood sticks and foam and cardboard wall panels.
Industry professionals were on hand to provide mentorship and the event was sponsored by development groups such as Mattamy Homes, Tridel and Oxford Properties.
“They didn’t even want to go get lunch, that’s how focused and dedicated they were,” said Emily Thompson, a teacher from St. Roch high school. “It’s such a unique opportunity for students to work on something they genuinely care about, especially since we wouldn’t normally have access to these kinds of materials at school.”
The competition was open to upper grade high school students in Peel District School Board, MonAvenir and Dufferin-Peel who were enrolled in construction or a related program.
