SteelStacks Arts and Cultural Campus

Format
Full

City
Bethlehem

State/Province
PA

Country
USA

Metro Area
Allentown–Bethlehem

Project Type
Special Use

Location Type
Other Central City

Land Uses
Cultural Use
Entertainment
Event Space
Office
Open space
Parking
Performance Space
Playground
Restaurant
Retail
Visitor Center

Keywords
Arts district
Brownfield
Cultural district
Former steel mill
Historic preservation
Industrial redevelopment
Outdoor sculpture
Park
Place making
Redevelopment
Tourism

Site Size
9.5 acres
acres hectares

Date Started
2009

Date Opened
2011

The SteelStacks Arts and Cultural Campus is a former steel mill site that has been restored, adapted, and transformed into an arts and cultural campus that features preserved blast furnaces and other historic steel mill buildings, an elevated walkway/trestle that offers up-close views of the blast furnaces, a visitor/exhibit center in a historic building, parks and outdoor plazas, an outdoor performing arts pavilion, an office building and production studios for the local public broadcasting station, and a new ArtsQuest Center building devoted to performing arts of all types.

The redevelopment was funded via a variety of sources, including tax increment financing revenues, donations from businesses and philanthropic organizations, and funds and tax credits from federal and state governments. The 9.5-acre development has become a major tourist attraction and a source of pride for the city of Bethlehem, and the steel stacks themselves are iconic structures unlike any others in the United States.

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Websites
www.steelstacks.org
www.levittsteelstacks.org
www.hoovermason.com

Project address
711 East First Street
Bethlehem, PA 18015

Master developer
Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
www.bethlehem-pa.gov

Building owners/developers
ArtsQuest (ArtsQuest Center)
PBS39 (PBS39 building)
Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority (Visitor Center, Levitt Pavilion, and the Hoover-Mason Trestle)

First Bethlehem Works master planners (1998 plan)
HOK Architects Inc., Studio E
Sandy & Babcock Inc.
The Idea Network
Christopher Degenhardt

Second Bethlehem Works master planner (2005 plan)
KostowGreenwood Architects

SteelStacks master planner and landscape architect (2009 and subsequent plans)
WRT
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
www.wrtdesign.com

Awards
ULI Global Awards for Excellence Winner, 2014

Other Participants

ArtsQuest Center architect
Spillman Farmer Architects

PBS39 building architect
URS Corporation

Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks and plaza architect
WRT

Stock House/Bethlehem Visitor Center architect
USA Architects

Hoover-Mason Trestle architect and landscape architect
WRT

Campus and blast furnace lighting
L’Observatoire International

Turn and Grind Shop/Festival Center architect
Artefact Inc.

Interviewees

John Callahan, mayor of Bethlehem (2004–2013) and director of business development, Florio Perrucci Steinhardt & Fader

Tony Hanna, executive director, Redevelopment Authority of the City of Bethlehem

Jeffrey A. Parks, executive director, ArtsQuest Foundation

Antonio Fiol-Silva, principal, WRT

Joe Klocek, project manager, Boyle Construction

Joe Biondo, principal, Spillman Farmer Architects

Grover Silcox, reporter/producer, PBS39

Staff

Kathleen B. Carey
Executive Vice President and
Chief Content Officer

Dean Schwanke
Senior Vice President,
Case Studies and Publications
Principal Author

James A. Mulligan
Senior Editor/Manuscript Editor

Betsy Van Buskirk
Creative Director

Anne Morgan
Graphic Design

Martin Schell
Manager, Online Communications

Danielle Bilotta
Online Communications

Elizabeth Herrgott, Feast Studios
Videography