SteelStacks Arts & Cultural Campus
2017 Rudy Bruner Award – Gold Medalist
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.
“SteelStacks Arts & Cultural Campus preserves the remnants of industrial history, demonstrating to people that their lives and work matter.”
-2017 Selection Committee
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.
tags: Adaptive Reuse/Preservation, Arts and Culture, Brownfields, Economic Development, Environmental Planning, Industrial Uses and Districts, Infrastructure, Mixed Use Development, Parks and Open Space, Urban Excellence