The Steel Design Student Competition--with $20,000 in cash prizes and a spotlight on student work--is once again challenging tomorrow’s great designers to come up with something great.

Administered by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), the program is intended to challenge undergraduate and graduate students, working individually or in teams, to explore a variety of design issues related to the use of steel in design and construction. Winning designs are featured on both ACSA and AISC’s websites as well as displayed to 6,000+ architects, engineers, steel fabricators, and the rest of the AEC industry at NASCC: The Steel Conference (April 22 to 24, 2026, in Atlanta).

The competition accepts entries in two categories each year: one that sets a specific challenge, and one open to all design ideas. 

This year’s guided challenge: a community dance center that functions as an integral part of the civic fabric.

“Communities have come together to dance for millennia,” said AISC’s Architecture Education Manager, Jeanne Homer, AIA. “This year, we’re challenging students to envision a space that encapsulates--and builds on--a shared community expression that has kept humans dancing for all those years.”

The open category welcomes any building type with any site and any building program that uses steel as the primary structural material.

Entrants’ faculty sponsors must register online by April 8, 2026, with submissions due June 3, 2026. Students may not enter both categories of the competition. Steel must be used as the primary structural material and contain at least one space that requires a long-span steel structure, with special emphasis placed on innovation in steel design.