Sands Casino Resort

Speirs + Major were invited to light this massive disused steelworks as part of the renovated Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

About Sands Bethworks
Bethlehem Steel used to be one of the largest shipbuilding and steel producers in the world and still remains an important symbol of America’s industrial greatness. A decade after the furnaces finally went cold, the site has been transformed into a resort run by Las Vegas Sands Corporation. As part of the development, several structures, including the blast furnaces that defined the city’s skyline for 100 years, have been carefully preserved and re-lit.

About the lighting
The community wanted to make sure that the history of the site was not forgotten. The designers’ approach was to preserve the memory using light to retell the story of local steel production. Carefully programmed LEDs illuminate the structures, with shades of red and blue used to express hot and cool processes. The furnaces appear to glow, intensifying in colour as they ‘heat’ up, before cooling off and returning to darkness for periods. In this way, light plays a strategic role in linking the site to its industrial past – preserving the integrity of the Bethlehem Steel edifices and celebrating their place in American industrial history.

Photographer: Alyssha Eve Csuk