Are you eager to put your architectural design skills to the test? Here are some exciting upcoming competitions that will be sure to present you with the type of challenge you’ve been waiting for. AN‘s editors have combed through our online listing of architecture and design competitions to bring you five of the most interesting competitions happening right now. If you’d like your competition to be included in the listing, please submit it here.

QueensWay Connection: Elevating the Public Realm. The Emerging New York Architects committee has announced its sixth biennial ideas competition. QueensWay Connection supports Friends of the QueensWay and the Trust for Public Land in their attempts to revitalize an abandoned elevated railway and turn it into a greenway. The competition, which is looking to supplement the ongoing feasibility study by offering ways the park can be activated and turned into a viable green space, is open to design students and professionals who have completed their education within the past 10 years. Cash prizes of up to $5,000 will be awarded.

Submission Deadline: January 1, 2014.

Louisville Children’s Museum Competition. Designing a Louisville Children’s Museum, Revitalizing a Downtown Edge is an ideas competition sponsored by the Construction Specifications Institute and the American Institute of Architects. Louisville lacks a museum dedicated to children specifically between 2-13 years of age, and the competition seeks designs for the museum, which will consist of a 5-level structure including space for up-to-date exhibits, a Museum Shop, play space, auditorium, and administration offices. The top three entries will earn cash awards of $6,000, $3,000, and $1,000 and entries from the final round will be on exhibit at Museum Hotel 21c in downtown Louisville.

Registration Deadline: February 10, 2014.
Submission Deadline: February 10, 2014.

Seattle Design Jam. The Seattle Design Jam competition is all about physical outdoor constructions. Through interactive structures and exhibits, the competition encourages public curiosity and discussion about the festival’s theme: Design in Health. Through the creation of an urban playground, Design Jam will explore physical, mental, social, and nutritional health. The competition is searching for ideas that contribute to an urban playscape within the festival space. Submissions must be physical installations, and the use of recycled or reused materials is strongly encouraged. The grand prize consists of $500 and a one month Makerhaus Studio membership.

Registration Deadline: September 15, 2013.
Submission Deadline: September 20, 2013.

2014 Ed Bacon Student Design Competition. How will driverless cars shape the Philadelphia of tomorrow? Advances in driverless technology will cause major transformations for American cities in the coming century. The annual competition, which challenges university-level students to address design issues that relate to global urban centers, aims to explore how roadways, sidewalks, intersections, signage, traffic signals, and the relationship between buildings, roadways, pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles will change. First prize will receive a $5,000 award and an awards ceremony will be held in Spring 2014.

Registration Deadline: October 3, 2013.
Submission Deadline: November 1, 2013.

Suburbia Transformed 3.0. To explore the aesthetics of landscape experience in the era of sustainability, the Suburbia Transformed 3.0 recognizes residential works that venture beyond “green” to address  the aesthetic quality of human experience in the process. The call for entries is searching for built and unbuilt residential landscapes and the jury will choose up to twelve projects in each category: built work; professional visionary (unbuilt) work, and student visionary (unbuilt) work. Winning submissions will be exhibited at the James Rose Center and will become part of a traveling exhibition focused on contemporary residential design.

Registration Deadline: February 18, 2014.
Submission Deadline: March 20, 2014.