The Waterfront Center is envisioned as the principal new access point from the capital’s riverfront to its historic core, and a contemporary architectural anchor point for a vibrant pedestrian zone in one of the city’s oldest continually inhabited parts.

Following the success of last year’s competition, Architecture for Humanity Chicago, in collaboration with Archeworks, is proud to announce the Street Furniture Competition 2011. Read over the full competition brief after the break.

The International Olympic Committee and the IAKS are organizing the IOC/IAKS Award 2011 for Exemplary Sports and Leisure Facilities. At the same time, the International Paralympic Committee and the IAKS are holding the IPC/IAKS Distinction for Accessibility 2011.

The international competition, NETWORK RESET, seeks to reactivate the entire boulevard system. The competition will focus on the urban scale and a larger framework for the system as well as smaller scale user impacts. NETWORK RESET aims to reactivate the entire Boulevard System of Chicago and to develop a quality transportation corridor.

The competition seeks out fresh and inventive designs that will help promote not only downtown but the City of Miami, and it’s historical connections to modern architecture.

The Re-Skinning Awards invites the best minds in architecture, design, building, and engineering from around the world to submit building projects that demonstrate the innovative use of energy retrofitting technologies. Retrofitting and re-skinning involve the implementation of design solutions to dramatically reduce the environmental footprint of older, energy-inefficient buildings. This competition recognizes the year’s most progressive retrofitting projects that are make our cities more sustainable.

The Civil Engineering and Development Department of Hong Kong has recently launched a International Design Ideas Competition for Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point Passenger Terminal Building and has shared with us their press release for this important piece of infrastructure.

Reflecting the current state of architecture, urbanism and landscape discourse, Architecture for Humanity – Chicago, School of the Art Institute Chicago and the Village of Igarai are proud to announce, 1.99 REAL HOUSING: Communities + Designers, a call for ideas.

Just a reminder that the registration deadline for the eVolo 2011 Skyscraper Competition is approaching. Register by January 11, 2011, here, to participate in eVolo’s forum for the discussion, development, and promotion of innovative concepts for vertical density. eVolo is pleased to invite students, architects, engineers, and designers from around the globe to take part in the 2011 Skyscraper Competition.

Most spaces for the performing arts (drama, music theatre, dance, concerts and other forms) are housed in specialized buildings, built for the purpose.

For the occasion of the first Festival of Ideas for a New City in New York City, Storefront for Art and Architecture jointly with the New Museum and New York City’s Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) are launching the StreetFest Competition for the design, management, and construction of temporary outdoor spaces that produce new ways for collective gathering and city engagement. On Saturday, May 7, 2011, one winning entry will occupy designated outdoor spaces along the Bowery and the surrounding streets of the New Museum during the Festival. We envision fabricating a minimum of fifteen structures that will cover approximately 2,000 square feet.

This competition, open to practitioners, faculty, students and intern architects, provides an opportunity to reflect upon a universal problematic: how to build the city of tomorrow in the complex urban fabric of the past.

A few days ago, we shared Visiondivision’s Nature’s Choice – a series of vacation homes that attempt to blend into their unique site placement. The firm just shared their latest competition entry for a hotel room atop a cloud. Presented in a comic strip, the proposal delivers a temporary hotel room to accommodate visitors of the 2012 London Olympic games.

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) is challenging architecture students in its eleventh annual steel design student competition for the 2010-2011 academic year to explore a variety of design issues related to the use of steel in design and construction. The design competition is carried out in two categories.

Architectural competition Griffintown Interrupted seeks to revive Montreal’s oldest industrial neighbourhood and has attracted submissions from over 40 teams around the world. Architects and designers from 10 countries have come forward to propose innovative, temporary structures for one of Montreal’s most hotly debated neighbourhoods.

The areas for expansion are either through the current high density processes, which begin to populate flood plains, or to move eastwards denseifying east London breaking through the green belt towards the Thames estuary, where a new second generation London could rise from the waves. The idea is not new, the Thames estuary has been the topic of intense debate through the possibility of building a floating island airport off the coast of Kent, and a nature reserve with a flood gate connecting Essex and Kent in its core via a high speed monorail. These radical approaches cannot be discarded without intense exploration, could the next east London generation be a floating one?

To coincide with the launch of their new Personal Factory 4 services, Google SketchUp is announcing the Ponoko 3D Printing Challenge. Basically, the challenge is to produce a piece of instructional content that’s equal parts enlightening and entertaining. Each entry must be titled “How to use Google SketchUp for Ponoko 3D printing,” but aside from that, the format is pretty open. Text, images and video (or some combination of the three) are all fair game.

airBaltic has recently hosted a international design competition for their new terminal in Riga, Latvia. We are sharing with you the ten finalists and urge everyone to vote for their favorite design HERE before voting ends December 5th. Additional finalist proposals after the break.