Frank Lloyd Wright Chicago to Fallingwater

Detailed Itinerary

Included meals are shown with the symbols B, L, D and C for canapés.

Sunday May 16: Arrive

Arrive in Chicago and meet your tour leader and fellow travellers for a welcome drink. Overnight Chicago

Monday May 17: 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 Architectural Foundation River Cruise to gain an overview of the city’s historic and modern architectural styles. Tonight, we have a welcome dinner and lecture in a local restaurant. Overnight Chicago (B, D)

Tuesday May 18: Frank Lloyd Wright – the 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)

Wednesday May 19: Chicago art and 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, restaurants and some spectacular 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. After a private guided tour, there is time to explore the collection independently and a break for lunch. In the afternoon we travel by coach for a private interior visit and evening cocktail reception in Robie House. Our trip takes us through the ‘White City’ – the site of the 1893 World’s Fair. Overnight Chicago (B, C)

Thursday May 20: 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 onto Milwaukee to visit the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, Wright’s modernist interpretation of Byzantine architecture, and take in some of the history and architecture of the city. Overnight Milwaukee (B)

Friday May 21: Milwaukee

This morning we tour the Burnham Block, one of the few intact examples of the American System-Built homes, Wright’s venture into mass suburban housing. We then enjoy a visit and some free time at the Milwaukee Art Museum, before travelling west for a private visit to Jacobs House I, considered the first ‘Usonian’ home, part of Wright’s ideal of a new world architecture free of previous conventions. We arrive in Madison, Wisconsin, our base for two nights and enjoy dinner in a local restaurant. Overnight Madison (B, D)

Saturday May 22: 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 house, the grounds and the studio, today an important training centre for emerging American architects. In the afternoon we visit the Unitarian Meeting House, designed by Wright and recognised as one of the most innovative examples of church architecture, followed by a visit to the Monona Terrace Convention Center, designed by Wright but only constructed in 1997. Tonight is a free evening. Overnight Madison (B)

Sunday May 23: Darwin Martin House

This morning we take a flight from Madison to Buffalo, New York. Located on the shores of Lake Erie, Buffalo rose to prominence in the early 19th century, when the Erie Canal was completed, connecting Chicago and the Mid-West with the Hudson River, New York and the world beyond. Between 1903 and 1908, Frank Lloyd Wright built a number of fine examples of his Prairie Style houses in Buffalo, and we visit the most famous of these, the Darwin D. Martin House. After a private tour of the sprawling complex, we’ll have a private catered dinner in the Wright-designed Gardner’s Cottage on the campus. Overnight Buffalo (B, D)

Monday May 24: Buffalo and Niagara Falls

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. The morning we’ll take a tour of downtown’s most prominent architectural sites, including an ascent to the top of Buffalo’s incredible Art Deco City Hall. This afternoon we’ll relax at Niagara Falls, one of America’s foremost natural wonders. Overnight Buffalo (B)

Tuesday May 25: The Steel City

We travel along the shores of Lake Erie to visit Graycliff, the summer home built by Wright for Darwin Martin, which is undergoing extensive renovation. We continue onto Pittsburgh this morning, 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. In the afternoon we’ll tour some of its historical and architectural highlights. Overnight Pittsburgh (B)

Wednesday May 26: Pittsburgh Philanthropy

Pittsburgh’s history as the industrial heartland of America is matched by its premier cultural, educational and artistic institutions, a legacy of the great industrialists-cum-philanthropists who owed their fortunes to steel, coal and aluminium. Today we’ll sample some of the finest, including a guided tour of the famous Carnegie Museum of Art and its stunning Hall of Architecture, as well as the Heinz Chapel and Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, and the stunning Phipps Conservatory in spring bloom. Overnight Pittsburgh (B)

Thursday May 27: Fallingwater private tour

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. We also visit nearby Kentuck Knob, a private house built for the Hagen family in 1954 and a good example of Wright’s later style. The current owner, Lord Palumbo, has also installed an impressive contemporary sculpture garden on the property. We return to Pittsburgh this evening for a farewell dinner at Altius, overlooking the city. Overnight Pittsburgh (B, D)

Friday May 28: Warhol and farewell

Before departing Pittsburgh today, we visit the Andy Warhol Museum. The sometimes-controversial artist was a Pittsburgh native, and the recently-opened 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)