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Ocean Discovery Centerworking name · Planning phase, home

Potential Locations

Planned for South Bethlehem.

The planned location is South Bethlehem: the SteelStacks campus and the East 3rd Street corridor, around LANta's Southside Station. No building has been chosen, and no owner or venue has been contacted. No land or building has been offered, and none has been confirmed with an owner, so no building is drawn anywhere. This page shows the plan, the research behind it and what only owners can answer.

Planned location

One area, phase by phase.

Planning phase: nothing is built yet, and there is no funding. Each step needs an existing venue or an owner to agree first.

  • Phase 0 · Programs

    Phase 0 programs are planned in existing venues in South Bethlehem, if they agree.

  • Format A · Temporary exhibit

    The temporary exhibit (Format A) is planned in an existing venue in South Bethlehem, if one agrees.

  • Format B · Discovery center

    The center (Format B) is planned in an existing building on the East 3rd Street corridor, if an owner agrees.

No building has been chosen, and no owner or venue has been contacted. No venue or building is named here as a target until its owner or operator agrees.

Geographic context

The Lehigh Valley, river by river.

Bethlehem sits between Allentown and Easton on the Lehigh River, which joins the Delaware at Easton. The dashed circle shows the planned area, approximately; no building or venue is marked.

How to read the tags on this page:

  • Verified Said by a primary source: a government record, the owner's or operator's own site, or an agency document.
  • Reported Said by credible news or a secondary source; not yet confirmed in a primary record.
  • Proposed Our proposal or our own estimate. Not yet confirmed, and nobody else has agreed to it.
  • Unknown Not found in public sources. Only the owner or agency can answer.

Research limits: desk research on 18 October 2026 from search-engine excerpts of the cited pages; no deed or parcel records were reached. Re-open a source before relying on it.

Schematic map · Planning phase · No building chosenPositions approximate

Scroll sideways to see the whole map.

Schematic map of the Lehigh ValleyAllentown, Bethlehem and Easton along the Lehigh River, which joins the Delaware River at Easton. The planned area in South Bethlehem is an approximate dashed circle, labelled below it. Also drawn: Monocacy Creek as a thin line, I-78 as a grey line, a plane symbol for Lehigh Valley International Airport, an arrow down the Delaware towards Delaware Bay and the Atlantic, a north arrow and a 5-mile scale bar. No building, venue or parcel is marked.Lehigh RiverDelaware RiverPlanned area (approximate)AllentownBethlehemEastonN
Dashed circle: the planned area, South Bethlehem, drawn approximately. No building, venue or land is marked, because none has been offered or confirmed with an owner. Possible hosts and partners are listed below the map, and none has been contacted. Thin blue line: Monocacy Creek. Grey line: I-78. Plane symbol: Lehigh Valley International Airport. The arrow shows the Delaware flowing on to Delaware Bay and the Atlantic. Scale bar: about 5 miles. Simplified rivers and roads; not for navigation.

Format A · Temporary exhibit

Possible hosts and partners.

The temporary exhibit (Format A) is planned in an existing venue in South Bethlehem, if one agrees. The places below have published exhibit or event space, or relevant expertise. None has been asked.

Also checked: public libraries (good for talks and pop-ups, usually too small or too short for a full exhibit run) and the National Canal Museum (closed for the 2026 season).

Format B · Discovery center

Areas studied, not parcels.

The center (Format B) is planned in an existing building on the East 3rd Street corridor, if an owner agrees. No building has been chosen, and no owner or venue has been contacted. Lehigh's Mountaintop campus and Easton were studied too. They are now seen as places for possible collaborators, none contacted (Lehigh's researchers, Nurture Nature Center) rather than for the center itself. Downtown Allentown and the former Martin Tower site were looked at but not carried forward.

Research comparison · Planning phase · No building chosen

Side by side

The same questions for each area, with no scores. Every cell has its own tag. “Not checked” means this research did not look. The former Martin Tower site is left out because no cultural use was found there.

Each area in detail

Filter by tag to see only verified facts, only our proposals and estimates, or only open questions.

Showing all 6 areas.

Planned location

SteelStacks and Bethlehem Works

Planned location

South Side corridor (East 3rd and 4th Streets, Southside Arts District)

Possible collaborator area, not a site for the center

Lehigh University Mountaintop Campus

Possible collaborator area, not a site for the center

Easton, where the Lehigh meets the Delaware

Not carried forward

Downtown Allentown

Open questions

What only owners and agencies can answer.

  1. Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority: is there any land it would consider for a cultural or educational use?
  2. Possible hosts: is an ocean exhibit or program of interest at all, and on what terms?
  3. ArtsQuest: Turn & Grind Shop booking terms and festival blackout dates once it opens.
  4. City Planning & Zoning: is a museum or education use allowed in the Industrial Redevelopment district? What are the parking rules?
  5. City of Bethlehem and the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office: is the campus inside a local Historic Conservation District, and would federal or state money trigger a historic review (for example under Section 106)?
  6. Wind Creek Bethlehem and the City: does the preservation promise for the blast furnaces bind Wind Creek, and is there a maintenance plan?
  7. EPA Region III and PA DEP: what do the recorded covenants allow for excavation, foundations and ground-source wells?
  8. City of Bethlehem: which parcels are inside its City Revitalization and Improvement Zone (CRIZ)? A project there that is eligible for CRIZ benefits cannot also receive the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grants.
  9. City water and sewer, PPL and UGI: is there capacity for a center on a given parcel (will-serve letters)?
  10. Bethlehem Parking Authority, ArtsQuest and LANta: school-bus drop-off and waiting, step-free routes, garage capacity outside festivals, current stop locations.

Getting there, today and maybe tomorrow

Places

Where a center is planned.

Adding a town or city means adding one entry to the site's settings. Today there is one. The areas studied above are options weighed for this one place, not other places. Other towns are added only when there is a real reason, and then as ideas; none is chosen.

  • Planning phase

    South Bethlehem

    Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States

    Programs in existing venues first, if they agree, then a temporary exhibit, then a small center in a reused building, each step only if the one before works.

    The plan for South Bethlehem

Connected ideas

Ideas this plan connects to, one line each. Nothing here is agreed unless its line says so.

  • This plan and AethonAethon is the data and mapping partner, founded by the plan's author. It does not fund, own, operate or approve the center.What Aethon does
  • This plan and SeaportsPlanned links to existing larger seaports for vessel and underwater-robot field work, field trips and data, decided on 19 October 2026 by the person planning the center. No port has agreed or been contacted.The planned seaport links
  • This plan and Project OSPeople, roles and sign-ups would go through Project OS, a shared system for people and work that is itself in its planning phase.How taking part would work