Elena Colombo Architectural Sculpture

I hope this finds everyone well and enjoying the summer. As some of you know, last August I was awarded a commission from the National Endowment for the Arts and ArtsQuest of Bethlehem PA, to design a fire sculpture for SteelStacks, the new arts, culture and education campus located on the site of the former Bethlehem Steel Plant. I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on the progress.

The Bridge is my first public commission, and the process has been quite thrilling. John Raymond, the on-site engineer for ArtsQuest, was the master project manager for the entire SteelStacks project; structural engineering of the sculpture took place over this past winter with Jeff Thompson from Buro Happold, an international firm located in Manhattan, and fabrication was recently completed at Amthor Steel in Erie PA. The sculpture was shipped to site this past Monday for the initial installation. Please page through the attached photos from the install. We still have many final details to finish on the sculpture, and the burner installs over the next days.

The Bridge is located in the center of the plaza between the massive blast furnaces that burned 24/7 at the height of Bethlehem Steel's production, and the new ArtsQuest and PBS buildings. The Bridge will be lit every evening to symbolize the revitalization of the site as a cultural center, as well as a nod to the past when the burners from the blast furnace burned through the night.

CHANGE The inaugural ignition of the Bridge will NOT take place on Monday, July 25th after 6pm at a party for Air Products, a major sponsor of the plaza where the sculpture sits. Bethlehem has postponed the dedication event to Sept. 6th (as far as I know, but that date has yet to be officially confirmed). My apologies to everyone who made plans for next week.It's not really a formal dedication at this time, but I would like to invite anyone interested to come join us for this event - it's casual, it'll be a fun place to be, plus there's big fire.

Elena has said that she will keep us posted with a date confirmation on the formal dedication, and everyone is still welcome then....

(Hopefully it will work - and don't think I'm not worried about that...)

There will also be other events in the future, hopefully for the group from the NEA, as well as many musical performances throughout the year - the thing is there to stay, so no worries if you can't make this event, I'll keep in-touch with progress.

I look forward to seeing some familiar faces that evening.

Warmest regards,

Elena