With increasing competition, the engineering industry is in need of optimization of designs that would lead to minimum cost or weight. Recent developments in Genetic Algorithms (GAs) makes it possible to model and obtain optimal solutions in structural design that can be put to use in industry. The main objective of this paper is to illustrate typical applications of GAs to practical design of structural systems such as steel trusses, towers, bridges, reinforced concrete frames, bridge decks, shells and layout planning of buildings. Hence, instead of details of GA process, which can be found in the reported literature, attention is focussed on the description of the various applications and the practical aspects that are considered in Genetic Modeling. The paper highlights scope and future directions for wider applications of GA based methodologies for optimal design in practice.