What do the Pike Place Market in Seattle and the Brooklyn Bridge have in common with Bethlehem’s SteelStacks campus?
They’ve all at one time been nominated for the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence, a prestigious biennial design award that recognizes transformative places that contribute to the vitality of American cities.
Folks in Bethlehem hope that the transformation of former Bethlehem Steel Corp. lands into an arts and entertainment destination will allow SteelStacks to join the ranks of Pike Place and the Brooklyn Bridge as contest winners.
SteelStacks faces some serious competition this year as it is up against four projects in Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston and New Orleans.
“Over the past 30 years, the Rudy Bruner Award has honored a diversity of pivotal places, from Seattle’s Pike Place Market to Project Row Houses in Houston to New York’s Brooklyn Bridge Park, bringing to light their contributions to improving the quality of life in America,” says award founder Simeon Bruner. “After three decades, we’re still discovering and recognizing new ways that public and private ingenuity and design can make our cities more accessible, inclusive and beautiful for everyone.”
In the money
The top winner will be awarded $50,000 while the other four silver medalists will win $10,000 to enhance their projects. If Bethlehem wins the gold medal, it plans to use the money to create a Friends of the Hoover Mason Trestle group to cover ongoing maintenance costs of the park.
On 5th birthday, see what’s next for SteelStacks
Redeveloping a brownfield to an arts and cultural campus that draws 1.5 million visitors annually shows the power of government and nonprofits banding together, said Tony Hanna, executive director of the Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority. The authority worked with ArtsQuest and PBS39 to overhaul the property, and it complements the next-door Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem.
“The plan and fulfillment of the concept is something that has resonated with urbanists all over the country,” Hanna said. “It is a great example of how to redevelop a brownfield site. We are very proud of what we did.”
The 9.5-acre campus opened to the public in June 2011 and was completed in spring 2016 with the ribbon-cutting of the Hoover Mason Trestle, an elevated linear park that tells the history of the property.
When designing the complex, developers chose to make the former Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces a stunning visual anchor of the site. The Hoover Mason Trestle was built around them.
Bands take the stage at the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks with the lit furnaces in the background. The WLVT PBS39 studio fronts out onto a square where they dominate the backdrop.
The Levitt Pavillion offers free concerts and outdoor movie screenings at the foot of the furnaces in the warmer months. The 1863 Stock House, the oldest building on the site, has been repurposed into a visitor’s center next to the blast furnaces.
All of those projects are unique, but they take on a new power collectively, Hanna said.
“When you put them together, you create a special place,” he said.
‘I wish I had one of those’
And that’s what the Bruner award recognizes. Hanna noted that the first project recognized 30 years ago was Pike Place Market, which is a destination everyone today agrees is a special place.
“People are really starting to say that about SteelStacks. They call us and say, ‘I want to learn about it,'” Hanna said. “People point to it and say, I really wish I had one of those.”
In March, Bethlehem officials will have a chance to show exactly why SteelStacks deserves to win. Folks from Bruner will spend three days in the Christmas City exploring the campus, meeting with community members and government officials. Part of the application included testimonials from residents about how the campus has impacted their lives and the committee wants to meet with them, Hanna said.
The visitors will be accompanied by Metropolis magazine, which will be documenting the visits and the process online.
“It is not just about getting another prestigious design award,” Hanna said. “It is about talking to people about how this has been a special place and how this has been so important to Bethlehem.”
In 2014, the complex was one of 13 winners in the 2014 Urban Land Institute Global Awards for Excellence competition, widely recognized as the land use industry’s most prestigious recognition program. SteelStacks was one of six North American winners.
THE OTHER 2017 FINALISTS
- Boston’s Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, a complex that integrates public school headquarters, community meeting space, retail and transit.
- Chicago Riverwalk, phase two and three, is a pedestrian park that provides access to the river and new waterfront amenities.
- New Orleans, Iberville offsite rehabs one and two, is the rehabilitation of 46 scattered historic homes for homeless women and children.
- Los Angeles’ LA Kretz Innovation Campus and Arts District Park, a demonstration facility promoting clean technology and the city’s green economy.
Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
