
The CIRT National Design and Construction Competition celebrates the innovations and contributions the design/construction community makes to the quality of American life, while understanding the issues and challenges the industry faces to deliver on this legacy. The Competition, maintained, coordinated, and judged by Construction Industry Round Table is intended for ACE Mentor Affiliate team entries.


Susie Q.
2024 National Finalist | ACE Mentor Greater New York
"I learned so much about sustainable design and construction - and about myself as a leader. I can't wait to use this project for my college applications."
.jpg)
Item Title Two
Use this space to promote the business, its products or its services. Help people become familiar with the business and its offerings, creating a sense of connection and trust.
Use this space to promote the business, its products or its services. Help people become familiar with the business and its offerings, creating a sense of connection and trust.

Item Title Three
Use this space to promote the business, its products or its services. Help people become familiar with the business and its offerings, creating a sense of connection and trust.
Use this space to promote the business, its products or its services. Help people become familiar with the business and its offerings, creating a sense of connection and trust.


Competition WinnerS





COMING SOON!
All competition details including timelines, prizes, challenges and our archive of past winners will be available Spring 2025 on our new Competition website. Stay tuned!
History
The CIRT National Design + Construction Competition was founded in 2007 as a CIRT 20th anniversary legacy project and in collaboration with the late Charlie Thornton, founder of the ACE Mentor Program. The Competition program was developed in order to introduced additional ways for students to develop valuable skills, and help them gain even more recognition and connection with professionals in the industry. The Competition presents three real-world project challenges and culminates in an in-person presentation in Washington D.C. to a jury panel of industry leaders.

The Competition program's theme is "celebrating the innovations and contributions the design/construction community makes to the quality of American life, while understanding the issues and challenges the industry faces to deliver on this legacy."
Each year, the Competition presents three real-world project challenges to judge the ability of the students to make a reasoned, coherent, well thought out, clear presentations on their team’s design and construction approaches that are realistic and responsive to the project’s objectives within time, budget, constructability constraints, etc.
The program is coordinated with the ACE Mentor Program of America (ACE) and only teams officially registered with ACE Mentor are eligible to compete.
The panel of judges is mainly compromised of CIRT member CEOs of the leading design and construction firms and groups in the United States. As such, the overall theme or evaluation criteria for the competition is one founded on the practical aspects of the profession, particularly with respect to constructability, use of materials, meeting deadlines, workflow, and establishing realistic/reasonable expenses or budgets.
The annual event is announced in the early fall and officially begins in January concluding with the final round in late April or early May at which the winner(s) will be selected and announced as a part of the annual CIRT Spring Meeting. Timeline details are listed in the annual Competition Packet.
CIRT will present prizes for the top three Worthy National Finalists* ($5/3/2K) plus prizes for runner-up entries. In addition, CIRT will provide a logistical/travel expense stipend (approximately $1,000 per team) to apply to costs associated with attending the final round as the Affiliate/Chapter best determines.
*The Worthy Finalists are named in honor of the late Ed Worthy and his contributions to the industry, Competition and ACE Mentor Program.