The Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence (RBA) has named the SteelStacks Arts and Cultural Campus as one of the five finalists for its 2017 Gold and Silver medal prizes. Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, RBA is a biennial design award recognizing transformative places that contribute to the economic, environmental, and social vitality of American cities. Seventy-eight projects in 27 states have been honored since its founding. Finalists and medalists are chosen by a nationwide committee of urban experts through an in-depth evaluation process involving input from the award application, site visits, interviews with project participants and community members, and committee discussions. Next month the RBA staff will begin site visits to each finalist project in preparation for the committee’s selection of the medal winners in June. More information on all of the finalists can be found here.
“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 RBA Founder Simeon Bruner. “After 3 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.”
The SteelStacks Arts and Cultural Campus is truly a transformational project created by the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Bethlehem under the leadership of Executive Director Tony Hanna, that continues to enhance the historical Bethlehem Steel site with a vibrant arts and cultural community at both a local and regional level. SITIO's Antonio Fiol-Silva lead the SteelStacks Master Plan, The Levitt Pavilion, and the Hoover-Mason Trestle projects as Principal-In-Charge and Planner, and Karen Blanchard was the Design Architect. We’re excited to share this fantastic project with the jury.