Rudy Bruner Award Collection

Title

SteelStacks Arts and Cultural Campus

Description

2017 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence - Gold Medal

Transformation of a former steel plant into a mixed-use cultural and entertainment district.

SteelStacks Arts and Cultural Campus repurposed an abandoned industrial site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to create an arts and entertainment district. Embracing the city’s past, SteelStacks integrates historic steel-making structures – including five 20-story-high blast furnaces – with new construction to tell the story of steel-making in America while stimulating an economy devastated by the closure of the 1,800-acre Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 1995.

Built on a 9.5-acre former brownfield, SteelStacks includes parks and plazas, an outdoor performing arts pavilion, a visitor center with a theater and community space in the restored historic Stock House building, new buildings for its nonprofit partners ArtsQuest and PBS39, a festival center, and an elevated trestle that gives the 1.5 million visitors each year an up-close look at the plant and its iconic blast furnaces. Its design focuses on connection, linking visitors to the city’s past, connecting the various activities and amenities within the campus, and merging the campus with the South Side neighborhood and the adjacent Sands Casino Resort.

Coverage

Bethlehem, PA

Date

2016

Subject

brownfield remediation

adaptive reuse

mixed-use developments

cultural centers

historic preservation

public spaces

visitors' centers

educational programs

historic districts

museums

Rights

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