The history of architectural competitions in the United States, spanning over two centuries of public design practice, chronicles the evolving political, social and design influences shaping America's built environment. Whether open or invited, single or multi-stage, architectural competitions have played a critical role in regenerating neighborhoods and cities worldwide. Competitions are complex processes that can help elevate the level of public discourse, create public awareness of the importance of quality design, and generate concepts or built projects that are thought provoking and innovative—all of which are essential components of successful urban design and improvement strategies.

Van Alen Institute has sponsored, managed and facilitated over 1,200 design competitions since it was founded as the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects in 1894. Rooted in the Institute's educational mandate, Van Alen Institute's design competitions include related conferences, roundtables, websites, publications and public exhibitions—programs intended to expand the exchange and debate about issues universally significant to civic and cultural life.

Since 1996, the Institute has initiated and collaborated on some of New York's most innovative open-call public design competitions, addressing sites ranging from Wall Street, Times Square and Queens Plaza to Governors Island, Coney Island and Gateway National Recreation Area. The public sites that the Institute selects for competitions, combined with the open call of the competition process itself, offer opportunities for designers to perform at their highest artistic level while acting as civic catalysts for the political and social benefit of the public.

As cultural historian Hélène Lipstadt noted at a 2005 conference that Van Alen Institute co-hosted with Princeton University's School of Architecture and Policy Research Institute for the Region: "With a decade of competition organization behind it, and with the recent decline in NEA [National Endowment for the Arts] funding of competitions and the uncertain future of the GSA [General Service Administration] contests, it may be that, if the VAI [Van Alen Institute] continues at this rate, it will be the nation's most active promoter of competitions."