Frank LLoyd Wright

Day 1 | Monday 1 June
Arrive Chicago
After individual travel arrangements to Chicago, we meet in the hotel for introductions and a welcome drink. Overnight Chicago

Day 2 | Tuesday 2 June
Downtown Chicago
The Great Fire of 1871 destroyed the entire Chicago CBD, leaving the way open for architects to design a new and modern city. The first steel-framed high-rise building rose in 1885 and the skyline today is densely packed with skyscrapers, many by renowned architects. Our walking tour this morning takes us past some of the city’s most iconic buildings. We visit the lobby of the Rookery Building, the masterpiece of Daniel Burnham and remodelled by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1905. In the afternoon we take the Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise to gain an overview of the city’s historic and modern architectural styles. Tonight, we have a welcome dinner in a local restaurant. Overnight Chicago (B, D)

Day 3 | Wednesday 3 June
Wright’s Early Years & Farnsworth House
Today we take a private coach tour of Oak Park. This Chicago suburb is where Frank Lloyd Wright lived and worked and where much of his early work can still be found. We have an interior tour of Wright’s home and studio, which Wright used as his architecture laboratory for his early designs, as well as Unity Temple, one of his most celebrated designs. We then view the numerous examples of Prairie Style architecture in the surrounding neighbourhood. In the afternoon, we drive west to Plano to visit Farnsworth House, the masterpiece of Modernist residential architecture by Mies van der Rohe, set in a beautiful landscape beside the Fox River. Overnight Chicago (B)

Day 4 | Thursday 4 June
Chicago Art & Architecture
We begin our day with a walk through Millennium Park. Originally occupied by railyards and parking lots, the area was redeveloped into a public space featuring an outdoor concert venue, gardens, and iconic art installations. From here we make our way to the highly-regarded Art Institute of Chicago, boasting a fine collection of both European and American painting and over 60 ‘decorated rooms’ – accurately reconstructed furnished interiors from a broad range of times and places. There is time to explore the collection independently and a break for lunch. In the afternoon we travel by coach to The Walter Burley Griffin Landmark District with the largest concentration of small- scale, Prairie-style houses in Chicago. We finish the day with a private interior visit of Robie House, one of the last houses Wright designed in his Oak Park home and studio and also one of the last of his Prairie School houses. Overnight Chicago (B)

Day 5 | Friday 5 June
SC Johnson Complex
We farewell Chicago and travel north to Racine, Wisconsin to visit the SC Johnson Wax Administration Building and Research Tower, a landmark in commercial office architecture. Subject to availability, we will also tour Wingspread, the expansive low-lying home designed for Herbert Johnson, one of Wright’s great patrons. We continue on to Milwaukee to visit the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, Wright’s modernist interpretation of Byzantine architecture, and to take in some of the history and architecture of the city. Tonight we enjoy dinner in one of the city’s fine restaurants. Overnight Milwaukee (B, D)

Day 6 | Saturday 6 June
Milwaukee
This morning we visit the Milwaukee Art Museum to explore the iconic architecture of the museum itself, examining the buildings designed by Eero Saarinen, David Kahler and Santiago Calatrava. We then tour Wright’s Burnham Block, the most complete collection of his American System-Built homes, designed for moderate and low income families. After time for lunch in Milwaukee’s vibrant Public Market, the afternoon is spent at the extensive Harley-Davidson Museum, with a variety of interactive exhibits covering the more than 100-year history of the brand. Overnight Milwaukee (B)

Day 7 | Sunday 7 June
Madison
Today we travel west for Madison, Wisconsin, stopping enroute for a private visit of Jacobs House I. Considered the first ‘Usonian’ structure, the home was part of Wright’s ideal of a new world architecture free of previous conventions. Arriving in Madison, we have a break for lunch before touring the Unitarian Meeting House, designed by Wright and recognised as one of the most innovative examples of church architecture. Its most distinctive feature is the soaring glass and wood prow, which Wright said symbolised aspiration. Overnight Madison (B)

Day 8 | Monday 8 June
Taliesin
This remote site in rural Wisconsin was the architect’s home from 1911 and is of central importance to understanding Wright. Taliesin was twice burned down and rebuilt. It was also the scene of the horrific 1914 axe murder of Wright’s lover, her children and several employees. A complex of buildings, combining Prairie Style and oriental influences, it was here that Wright designed Fallingwater, the Guggenheim Museum and other key works. We tour the entire Estate including Hillside School, Tan-y-Deri, the house, the grounds and the studio with drinks on Wright’s private balcony and lunch in the Wright designed Riverview Terrace Café. While in residence at Taliesin, Wright had also done business with the wholesaler Albert Dell German and in exchange for unpaid bills, Wright designed the avant-garde A.D. German Warehouse in Richland Center, Wisconsin, which we visit this afternoon. This four-story warehouse is said to resemble a Mayan temple. The evening is at leisure on return to our hotel. Overnight Madison (B, L)

Day 9 | Tuesday 9 June
Upstate New York
This morning we return to Chicago to fly to Buffalo, New York. Located on the shores of Lake Erie, Buffalo rose to prominence in the early nineteenth century, when the Erie Canal was completed, connecting Chicago and the Mid-West with the Hudson River, New York and the world beyond. After New York City, Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state. It has many significant buildings, including Louis B. Sullivan’s Guaranty Building and Daniel Burnham’s Ellicott Square building. This afternoon we tour some of these sites and dine in a local restaurant. Overnight Buffalo (B, D)

Day 10 | Wednesday 10 June
Wright in Buffalo, Niagara Falls
Between 1903 and 1908, Frank Lloyd Wright built a number of fine examples of his Prairie Style houses in Buffalo, and we survey these today along with the Darwin D. Martin House. Most of the houses were built for executives of the Larkin Soap Factory and are located in the Parkside East Historic District, a neighbourhood laid out by renowned American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in 1876. (Olmstead is also largely responsible for New York’s Central Park.) This afternoon we marvel at Niagara Falls, one of America’s foremost natural wonders. Overnight Buffalo (B) 

Day 11 | Thursday 11 June
Pittsburgh
We travel along the shores of Lake Erie to visit Graycliff, the summer home built by Wright for Darwin Martin. Travelling south, we stop at Erie to tour the reconstruction of Wright’s San Francisco architectural office and drafting studio. We continue onto Pittsburgh this afternoon, a city whose name is synonymous with the coal and steel industry. The city’s wealth contributed to its rich cultural heritage and few patrons were as generous as Andrew Carnegie, a Pittsburgh-based industrialist who made his fortune out of steel and endowed many of the city’s cultural institutions. Overnight Pittsburgh (B)

Day 12 | Friday 12 June
Private Tour of Fallingwater
We depart Pittsburgh early today and make our way to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, where we enjoy a private interior tour of the house. Completed in 1939, its dramatic setting over a river and revolutionary modernist architecture made the house instantly famous. Built for the wealthy Kaufmann family, who made their fortune in retail, Fallingwater was a private retreat until the early 1960’s, when the house and several hundred acres of land around it were entrusted to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. After time for lunch, we tour Kentuck Knob, with its organic floor plan, cantilevered overhangs and expanses of glass integrating the interior with its stunning surroundings. This evening we enjoy a farewell dinner in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh. Overnight Pittsburgh (B, D)

Day 13 | Saturday 13 June
Warhol and Farewell
Before departing Pittsburgh today, we visit the Andy Warhol Museum. The sometimes-controversial artist was a Pittsburgh native, and the museum contains a broad sampling of his oeuvre. We then head to Pittsburgh airport where our tour ends, allowing for convenient flight connections home to Australia. (B)