This competition, in the spirit of visionary thinkers and planners, world's fairs and literature everywhere, challenges participants to imagine tomorrow's buildings, transportation networks, and centers of commerce and begin to give them form by creating bold and visionary designs reflecting what their city might look like and how it would function 100 years from now.

The competition aims for clear architectural and engineering responses with the goal of using what we have learned from past civilizations in order to peer into the future. We want to see tomorrow's cities foretold in three dimensions, not merely written about or described. We are looking for tomorrow's architectural and engineering marvels, which like the engineering and architectural marvels of past civilizations, have the staying power to endure beyond their times.

Each charrette will include a 7 day preparation period during which teams will work in their own workspaces, followed by a 1-day public presentation event. During the preparation period, design teams will work feverishly on their own to develop their "City of the Future." On the presentation day, teams will be challenged to build a 3-Dimensional representation of their vision alongside their competition--in full public view. To add to the excitement, teams will have just 4 hours to bring this 3-D vision to life before they are presented to a panel of distinguished jurors who will review and critique each team’s work and award a monetary prize to the regional winner. Regional winners will also have the chance to compete alongside the two other regional winners in a National Online “Viewer’s Choice” competition on History.com for the chance to win an additional monetary prize.

Regional design charrettes will take place in three cities:

*The final day of each charrette will include a jurying session and will take place in a public venue, to be announced.

• New York City: October 26 – November 2, 2006 (Event hosted at Vanderbilt Hall Grand Central Station)
  
• Chicago: November 10 – November 17, 2006 (Event hosted at the Chicago Architecture Foundation)
  
• Los Angeles: December 1 – December 8, 2006 (subject to change) 
  

*Charrette dates and locations are subject to change.