Earlier work on shape optimization indicated that a simple problem description format was crucial to effective use of the program. As a result, a geometric problem description format which uses only boundary information was developed. A finite element mesh generation capability which requires only boundary information is used to generate the mesh, and a solution-based adaptive mesh refinement scheme is used to provide a more accurate estimate of the true solution. During the optimization process, periodic refinements are performed to generate estimates of the refined stresses based on unrefined solutions. Nonlinearities in the constraints led to some convergence difficulties; however, minimum mass designs typically were obtained in 30-40 finite element solutions.