Hundreds of hours of work by university students to celebrate the Grey Cup has been destroyed by vandals. Students at the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture Planning and Landscape collaborated with the Calgary Downtown Association and the city to create plastic footballs that would be painted and placed throughout downtown. The footballs, which were the final result of months of design, fabrication and coordination, were installed Monday night. But by the next day, they had been destroyed. One professor says the vandalism is discouraging -- but they are grateful for the partnership with the city. “It’s heartbreaking when collectively hundreds of hours of work gets destroyed in this way,” said Alicia Nahmad, an associate professor at U of C. ”However I think we should still celebrate the collaboration. It’s a really fantastic opportunity that the city offers for our students to be able to work with them and make them part of making downtown vibrant." The university estimates abut 500 hours of work went into the footballs. Another student-built installation, called Ghost, will be installed downtown later this week.
