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MAY 16-28, 2021 TOUR LEADER: DR MATTHEW LAING

Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece, Fallingwater (1939) Overview CHICAGO TO FALLINGWATER

Academy Travel’s Frank Lloyd Wright from Chicago to Fallingwater tour Tour dates: May 16-28, 2021 offers a unique opportunity to view 16 buildings designed by Wright, including suburban homes, rural villas, churches and commercial offices. Tour leader: Dr Matthew Laing Inspired by nature, forward looking, varied and highly original, Wright’s works continues to astound us. A journey through Wright’s is Tour Price: $9,470 per person, twin share also a journey through modern America from the ‘Gilded Age’ of the 1890s to ‘mid-century modern’ when American architecture, design, art Single Supplement: $1,740 for sole use of and literature dominated the world stage. double room The tour also visits buildings by Wright’s predecessors, contemporaries Booking deposit: $1,000 per person and followers, including , Louis B Sullivan, Mies Van Der Rohe and Norman Forster. We begin with four nights in Chicago, a city Recommended airline: Qantas or United brimming with fine architecture and fine art, and where Wright developed his Prairie Style of architecture. We then travel north to Milwaukee, visiting the SC Johnson Wax Administration Building, and on to Madison, Maximum places: 20 to see some of Wright’s commercial work as well as , his beloved estate. Our next stop is Buffalo, near Niagara Falls, to visit the Itinerary: Chicago (4 nights), Milwaukee Darwin Martin complex of houses. Travelling to , Pennsylvania, (1 night), Madison (2 nights), Buffalo (2 nights), we conclude the tour with a private in-depth tour of America’s most Pittsburgh (3 nights) famous house, Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.

Date published: May 13, 2020 Accommodation is in comfortable four-star hotels, with breakfast daily and several meals at carefully chosen restaurants included.

Your tour leader

Dr Matthew Laing is a historian and political scientist at Monash University who has led tours to the Americas and Europe with Academy Travel for five years. He has a strong personal interest in architecture, cultural history and modern art, with a particular expertise in the .

Matthew holds a BA and PhD from the Australian National University, and wrote his doctorate on the history of the United States presidency. He has worked as a lecturer and research fellow at the Australian National University, Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and now at Monash University in Melbourne. He currently teaches United States history and leadership, and has published on both topics. He has lectured and written on a wide variety of US subjects, including the American Revolution, the Gilded Age, and American Modernist Enquiries and architecture. bookings Matthew’s tours strive for intellectual engagement and to reveal the For further information and to stories, both big and small, that can bring history to life. A voracious secure a place on this tour reader and traveller, Matthew strives to be a generalist and draws upon a please contact Lynsey Jenkins wide range of subjects – from politics to architecture – to develop his at Academy Travel on 9235 understanding of a place. Matthew’s passion for the United States started 0023 or 1800 639 699 (outside as an intern in the United States Congress in 2007. Since then he has Sydney) or email made dozens of trips across the country, for both work and pleasure, and [email protected] is closing in on his goal of visiting all 50 states.

Wright visits his 1910 in Chicago, Ill., March 18, 1957 Key Sites WRIGHT'S HOME AND STUDIO

Visited: (1889) Wright began his career in Oak Park and his first See over 15 masterworks studio is one of his earliest masterpieces. We’ll take spanning seven decades a private tour of the home and studio, as well have of incredible creativity. a walking tour of the Oak Park neighbourhood where many of his earliest houses are to be found.

UNITY TEMPLE (1905) DARWIN MARTIN COMPLEX A beautiful experiment in modern materials and religious (1903) design; our tour takes us through this recently restored icon Built for one of his most faithful patrons, the Darwin in depth. Martin House is a revolutionary pioneer of many

concepts of modern residential architecture, including an open floor plan and nearly 400 art glass windows.

ROBIE HOUSE (1909) TALIESIN (1911-1925) A landmark of the Prairie-Style on the campus of the Wright's Wisconsin estate and architectural school, . We’ll enjoy a private evening brimming with innovations and experiments. Our in- cocktail reception here. depth tour takes in his entire property and its many buildings.

SC JOHNSON WAX JACOBS HOUSE I (1937) HEADQUARTERS (1936) The first of his Usonian homes and forerunner of the ranch house, this influential Wright design is privately Wright reinvents himself in the streamlined modern owned by a former art professor, who will take us style here, and its great work room has been described through it. as the 'most beautiful room in America'. Our special tour takes us through this still-working corporate headquarters.

FALLINGWATER (1939) (1953) Wright's unrivalled masterpiece set upon a waterfall in From the twilight of his career and one of his most the of , where we'll mature Usonian creations, our tour here will give us enjoy a private, before-hours visit to give the best insight into the lasting legacy, and struggle to conserve, possible access to the house and the least crowds. Wright’s work.

Detailed itinerary

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

Tour start & finish time

The tour begins at 6.00pm on Sunday May 16, at the Kimpton Gray Hotel, Chicago.

The tour ends at 1:00pm on Thursday May 28, at Pittsburgh airport.

Sunday May 16 Arrive Arrive in Chicago and meet your tour leader and fellow travellers for a welcome drink. Overnight Chicago

Above: Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate, reflecting and distorting the city's Monday May 17 skyline in Downtown Chicago Below: Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in Oak Park; and American Gothic by Grant Wood in the collection of the Art Institute of The Great Fire of 1871 destroyed the entire Chicago CBD, Chicago 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 , 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 , 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 , 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 , 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 , 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 Above: looking up to the chimney seeper and ceiling in Wingspread, also This remote site in rural Wisconsin was the architect’s home known as the Herbert F. Johnson House; and the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, Wright’s modernist interpretation of Byzantine from 1911, and is of central importance to understanding architecture

Wright. Taliesin was twice burned down and rebuilt. It was also Below: Taliesin – Wright’s home for 30 years 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 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, . 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 , 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 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 , 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

Images left: The Unitarian Meeting House, recognised as one of the most innovative examples of church architecture; looking across Niagara Falls; and the cantilevers, with their strong horizontal and vertical lines, are a distinctive feature of Fallingwater 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)

Hotels Hotels have been selected principally for their central location.

 Chicago, Kimpton Gray Hotel (4 nights) www.kimptonhotels.com

 Milwaukee, The Pfister Hotel (1 night) www.thepfisterhotel.com

 Madison Wisconsin, Mariott AC Hotel (2 nights) www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/msnac-ac-hotel-madison-

downtown/

 Buffalo, Curtiss Hotel (2 nights) www.curtisshotel.com

 Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, Omni William Penn Hotel Above: the view from the living room towards the west terrace at (3 nights) www.omnihotels.com Fallingwater; and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Kentuck Knob

Below: Andy Warhol’s self portrait in the Warhol Museum visa requirements In order to enter the United States all travellers are now required to complete an online form, the US government’s Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (or ESTA). Full details are available at https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov. In making the application you will need details of your arriving flight to the USA and also need to provide the name and address of the first hotel we are staying at:

Kimpton Gray Hotel 122 W Monroe St, Chicago, IL 60603, USA Phone: +1 312-750-9012

The cost of the ESTA is currently USD $14 and you should receive an authorisation within 48 hours. Print a copy of your ESTA and carry it with you on your flight.

Tour Price Fitness Requirements

The tour price is $9,470 per person, twin share (land content of THIS tour only). The supplement for a single room is $1,740 per person. A non-refundable deposit of $1,000 per person is GRADE TWO required to secure a place on the tour. It is important both for you and for your fellow travellers that Tour Inclusions you are fit enough to be able to enjoy all the activities on this tour. To give you an indication of the level of physical fitness Included in the tour price required to participate on our tours, we have given them a  All accommodation in carefully selected four-star hotels star grading. Academy Travel’s tours tend to feature  All breakfasts, and selected lunches and dinners in extended walking tours and site visits, which require greater hotels and local restaurants fitness than coach touring. We ask you to carefully consider  Land travel by air-conditioned coach, rail or taxi as your ability to meet the physical demands of the tour. required Participation criteria for this tour  Economy class air travel from Madison to Buffalo  Extensive background notes This Grade Two tour is designed for people who lead active  Background talks lives and can comfortably participate in up to five hours of  Services of Australian tour leader throughout tour physical activity per day on most days, including longer  All entrance fees to sites mentioned on itinerary walking tours, challenging archaeological sites, climbing  Qualified local guides stairs, embarking and disembarking trains and/or boats, and  Tips for all services stated as included in the itinerary a more demanding tour schedule with one-night stops or  Porterage of one piece of luggage at all hotels several internal flights. Not included You should be able to:  International air fares, taxes and surcharges (see  keep up with the group at all times below)  walk for 4-5 kilometres at a moderate pace with only  Travel insurance short breaks  Visa costs  stand for a reasonable length of time in galleries and  Meals not mentioned in itinerary museums  Expenses of a personal nature  tolerate uncomfortable climatic conditions such as cold, humidity and heat  walk up and down slopes Air travel OPTIONS  negotiate steps and slopes on archaeological sites, The tour price quoted is for land content only. For this tour which are often uneven and unstable we recommend Qantas or United who have regular flights  get on and off a large coach with steep stairs, train or to the East Coast. Please contact us for further information boat unassisted, possibly with luggage on competitive Economy, Business and First-Class airfares.  move your luggage a short distance if required Transfers between airport and hotel are included for all passengers booking their flights through Academy Travel. A note for older travellers These may be group or individual transfers. If you are more than 80 years old, or have restricted mobility, it is highly likely that you will find this itinerary challenging. Enquiries & bookings You will have to miss several activities and will not get the full value of the tour. Your booking will not be accepted until For further information and to secure a place on this tour after you have contacted Academy Travel to discuss your please contact Lynsey Jenkins at Academy Travel on 9235 situation and the exact physical requirements of this tour. 0023 or 1800 639 699 (outside Sydney) or email While we will do our best to reasonably accommodate the [email protected] physical needs of all group members, we reserve the right to refuse bookings if we feel that the requirements of the tour Weather on Tour are too demanding for you and/or if local conditions mean we cannot reasonably accommodate your condition. May is a great time to travel to the United States. Spring has definitely arrived, but not the summer heat and humidity. Expect daytime temperatures of 15-22 degrees Celsius, dropping to 8-10 in the evenings. It is likely to rain on a few days of the tour, so be sure to pack an umbrella and waterproof jacket.

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ACADEMY TRAVEL TAILORED SMALL GROUP JOURNEYS Email: [email protected] academytravel.com.au