Sunday, May 18, 2008
By Sarah Sole
Special to The Vindicator
ArtsQuest, a nonprofit organization in Bethlehem, Pa., recognizes the importance of linking the present to the past.
“It’s just absolutely necessary that history be preserved and interpreted in some fashion,” Ron Unger said. “There’s no sense in building new when you have such great stock.”
ArtsQuest’s hand in the Bethlehem Steel project, dubbed SteelStax, will feature a performing arts and broadcast system. WLBT, Channel 39, will be housed inside the complex.
This is the first type of collaboration between the arts and a public broadcasting station, Unger said. The building will have a music-fest café with a glass wall allowing a clear view of the once mighty blast furnaces.
The second building will house an events center that will eventually become a venue for Allentown’s yearly music-fest, a 10-day event featuring 350 free concerts. Organizers say that organizations could also rent the facility.
Using the architecture is important not only to ArtsQuest but to the community, Unger said. The whole community is in favor of retaining its history, he said.
Bethlehem Steel’s history has extended outside the immediate area.
The largest brownfield in the nation, the mill’s steel was used for the Golden Gate Bridge and the Empire State Building, Unger said.
“It helped build a nation,” he said.
Jeff Parks, president of ArtsQuest, came up with the idea for an arts park, which eventually developed into the project, SteelStax .
Parks toured Germany, where they utilized former steel plants in similar ways, Unger said. As in Germany, Bethlehem plans to light its own furnaces in some fashion at night.
“The last thing in the world we wanted to see going there was a Target store,” he said.
Though other former steel cities are capable of renovating old mills, the cities can’t implement the project by themselves, Unger said.
“The dollars required to attack it are immense,” he said.
State funding is also helpful.
Bethlehem has received $5 million from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the SteelStax project and is expecting more, Unger said. The project’s total cost is estimated at $65 million.
SteelStax will create 44 direct full-time equivalent jobs and 48 nonconstruction, FTE indirect jobs, Unger said. The complex will generate $8.6 million per year, and audience spending will create an additional 279 regional full-time indirect jobs.
“It sure makes it a much more interesting place to live,” he said.
The ArtsQuest project is not the first time Bethlehem has used part of the former Bethlehem Steel facility for a new project.
In 2006, the alloy and tool shipping area was converted into a venue that houses a sports bar, a fitness center, and condominiums, Unger said.