Campus map designed by Mike McCubbins, 2022.
Download the full NBAC campus guide here.
About Our Campus
The National Building Arts Center deliberately chose to locate itself in a historic manufacturing facility, in the spirit of its mission and collections. Today NBAC occupies 12.7 acres on the site of the former Sterling Steel Casting Company foundry (opened in 1923 and closed in 2001). The facility includes 13 historic casting, pattern storage, and office buildings. Located in Sauget, Illinois, just outside of the industrial giant East St. Louis, the collections will be interpreted alongside the history of a foundry once part of a belt of St. Louis–area foundries known as the “Pittsburgh of the West”. Since occupying the site in 2005, the Center has initiated a rehabilitation effort that has preserved the historic character of the buildings so that their past use is emphasized. There are few other industrial preservation projects like this one in North America. Work on the buildings remains ongoing, but all are in use.
History of Sterling Steel Casting: Additional information about our historic site.