Some timeless thinking about design and the civic heart of a
city by Bob Spillman from 1967 to round out an excellent 2013 at Spillman Farmer Architects. Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for 2014 from all of us at SFA.
Features Of New Library: Make It Leader Of Design
By ROBERT A. SPILLMAN - City Center Associate Architect
The Bethlehem Globe-Times – July 15, 1967
Construction of the new Bethlehem Public Library is on
schedule for dedication in early October with the entire City Center project.
Painters are busy painting the exterior columns and windows,
plasterers are working on the colonnade ceilings, and glaziers are completing
the glass installation, while on the interior, workers are installing flooring
materials, plaster walls, acoustical ceilings and ceiling light fixtures.
A new Public Library for Bethlehem will soon be a reality.
body of article found here, small excerpt about the art below (the entire article is worth the read!)
Place For Art
Art will be used in the Library as elsewhere throughout the
Center to represent the best of both traditional and contemporary artistic
expression. The sixty-foot high sculpture by Joseph Greenberg, located on the
plaza and constructed of welded steel, is said to represent the fusion and
integration of the nationalities comprising our citizenry.
The wall sculpture by Joseph Cantieni in the Library stair
hall is intended to represent three interconnected trees of knowledge beginning
in the basement with the beginnings of life and cumulating at the top with
man's exploration of space.
In contrast to the rough welded reinforcing bars of
weathering steel in the exterior Greenberg sculpture, the playful Centieni wall
sculpture will feature bright metals, polychrome, and colorful plastic forms.
And don't be too surprised in walking through the Library to
find a simple woodcut here, and etching there, and a colored lithograph elsewhere.
There will be ample room for additional works of art as the City's collection
grows.
Now that the Library is reaching completion it is almost
impossible to visualize the City Center without it. It is the cornerstone of
the composition and the balance in both mass and function to the taller
government buildings on the east side of the plaza.
It has become a reality only because the citizens of
Bethlehem wanted it badly enough to personally subscribe to pay over one-third
of its cost. An enlightened City Government with the power of veto resting in
either political party chose to respond to this need by providing one-third of
the cost from tax monies and by securing the balance needed through State and
Federal funds.
All that remains is for the first bright-eyed youngster to
walk through the main entrance door on Oct. 11 and officially open the Library
that the citizens of Bethlehem made possible.”
Brief Notes on Joseph J. Greenberg – Sculptor of “Symbol of
Progress”
“Joseph J. Greenberg, the sculptor of the black granite Bear
and Cub at the Philadelphia Zoo and many other public sculptures. Mr. Greenberg, a versatile and prolific
artist, produced works ranging from realistic stone carvings of animals to
stylized Fiberglas figures and abstract bronzes.
Many of his public sculptures are in Philadelphia, but he
said one of his favorites was the 60-foot-high welded steel Symbol of Progress
he made in 1967 for the Civic Center in Bethlehem, Pa.”
NYTimes - 1991 – AP Obituary
