MODERN ARCHITECTURE LOS ANGELES TO CHICAGO OCTOBER 14-26, 2018 TOUR LEADER: STUART BARRIE MODERN ARCHITECTURE Overview LOS ANGELES TO CHICAGO During much of the 20th and 21st centuries, the west and mid-west of the Tour dates: October 14-26, 2018 United States was a laboratory of modern architecture and design. The motor car ruled, and the burgeoning media industries and wealth of the Tour leader: Stuart Barrie West Coast created an appetite for experimentation and innovation, particularly in the field of residential architecture. The leading names in modern architecture - Richard Neutra, Albert Frey, Mies van der Rohe Tour Price: $9,870 per person, twin share and Frank Lloyd Wright – all undertook work for clients in Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Phoenix and Chicago. Single Supplement: $2,170 for sole use of double room Our 13-day tour visits some of the iconic houses and sites of American modernism. We begin with three nights in Los Angeles visiting the Ray Booking deposit: $500 per person and Charles Eames house, Wright’s textile block houses and more recent sites such as Richard Meier’s Getty Centre. We then enjoy two nights in Recommended airline: Qantas or United Palm Springs, considered one of the great centres of mid-century modernism, before continuing onto Phoenix, Arizona to enjoy an in-depth Maximum places: 20 visit of Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home, Taliesin West. Our next stop is Columbus, Indiana where due to the vision of the civic leaders, the city Itinerary: Santa Monica (3 nights), Palm Springs has become a centre for architectural innovation and design. The tour (2 nights), Scottsdale (2 nights), Columbus, IN (2 concludes with three nights in Chicago with visits to the Mies designed nights), Chicago (3 nights) Farnsworth House and Illinois Institute of Technology. Date published: December 12, 2017 Accommodation is in comfortable four-star hotels throughout with breakfast daily, several special meals, and some evening concert performances. Your tour leader Stuart Barrie is a director of Academy Travel and has a well-established interest in European and American modern history, art and architecture. He has designed and led more than 20 cultural tours to Europe and the United States, all with a strong focus on the 20th century. He has a particular interest in American modernism, beginning with the Chicago School and Frank Lloyd Wright, and has made numerous visits to many of the architecturally significant residential, public and commercial buildings in the United States. ‘Great architecture and design’, says Stuart, ‘requires a combination of factors that only come together every now and again. California and Chicago in the 20th century were among the most vibrant and dynamic Enquiries and places on the planet. The artistic vision and design skills of the architects bookings were matched by equally visionary clients, striving to express their modernity in steel, glass and stone.’ For further information and to secure a place on this tour ‘Stuart was the perfect leader – good natured, well organised, please contact Jemma York at able to impart information without overwhelming us and able to put Academy Travel on together a program which suited all interests.’ Participants on Stuart 9235 0023 or 1800 639 699 Barrie’s Frank Lloyd Wright tour, May 2016. (outside Sydney) or email [email protected] Tour Highlights LOS ANGELES Far from the long reach of European classicism, post-war Los Angeles became the archetype of the modern American utopia, so familiar to us through film and television. Here architects including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra and Richard Wexler created homes for the ‘creative class’ of entrepreneurs, performing artists and media executives. PALM SPRINGS In the ‘golden years’ of Hollywood, movie stars were contracted to not travel more than 100 miles from the Hollywood studios. Palm Springs, 96 miles from Los Angeles, became the secluded getaway for the creative elite. In the 1950s and 1960s performers such as Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra commissioned leading architects to create stylish holiday homes. Today this desert town boasts more than 2,000 examples. TALIESIN WEST Frank Lloyd Wright created Taliesin West in 1937, just a year after Fallingwater had resurrected his floundering career. It served as the winter home and studio of Wright and his colleagues right through until the architect’s death in 1959. As always, Wright responded to the natural environment, incorporating the colours of the desert and the low sweeping lines and uplifts of the landscape in his design. COLUMBUS, INDIANA This small Midwestern city is perhaps the USA’s most surprising architecture and design destination. Nicknamed the ‘Athens of the Prairie’, the town features buildings by Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei, Robert Venturi, Cesar Pelli and Richard Meier. Six of the town’s buildings are designated National Historic Landmarks and a further 60 have been featured in publications on modern architecture. CHICAGO Always a forward-looking city in the sphere of technology and industry, Chicago’s architecture and design had to be re- imagined after the disastrous fire of 1871. Architects such as Daniel Burnham and Louis B. Sullivan revolutionised commercial architecture with their multi-storey steel framed ‘sky scrapers’. In the domestic sphere, Sullivan and the young Frank Lloyd Wright revolutionised the American home. Detailed itinerary Included meals are shown with the symbols B, L and D. Tour start & finish time The tour starts on Sunday October 14th at 12.00pm, at the Double Tree Suites, Santa Monica. The tour ends on Saturday October 26th at 3.00pm, at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Above: The Ennis House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923, enjoys stunning views over Los Angeles Sunday October 14 Santa Monica and the Getty Center Below: Inside the Ray and Charles Eames Case Study House No 8 – We meet at the hotel at 12.00pm and begin with a visit to the the house was such a spatially pleasant modern residence that it Getty Center. Richard Meier’s 1997 building houses the became the home of the architects themselves; and The Walt Disney remarkable collection of J. Paul Getty and has stunning views of Concert Hall in Downtown of Los Angeles, designed by Frank Gehry Los Angeles. We return to Santa Monica for dinner in a local restaurant. Overnight Santa Monica, Los Angeles (D) Monday October 15 A survey of LA modernism Prosperous and forward-looking, Los Angeles was at the vanguard of the emerging style that became known as mid- century modernism. This morning we visit Hollyhock House, Frank Lloyd Wright’s first Los Angeles commission from 1921. We continue to Silver Lake – the largest concentration of buildings designed by Richard Neutra, mainly in the 1950s. More gems follow in the afternoon, including the Bradbury Building and Kings Road House, Rudolf Schindler’s 1922 landmark residence. Overnight Santa Monica (B) Tuesday October 16 EAMES, Getty & Gehry This morning we visit the Ray and Charles Eames Case Study House No 8 to learn about these key figures in American modernism. This is followed by a visit to the Getty Villa in Malibu. Modelled on a first-century Roman Villa at Herculaneum, the Getty Villa illustrates the equally strong tendency towards historicism in American architecture. The afternoon is free to explore Santa Monica and its famous Pier and nearby Venice Beach. This evening we return to the contemporary with an evening performance in the Frank Gehry designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (subject to availability). Overnight Santa Monica. (B) Wednesday October 17 To the desert This morning we travel by private coach the “96 miles” to Palm Springs – the furthest distance the Hollywood studios would allow their contracted stars to travel in the 1920’s, something which put Palm Springs on the map as a perfect getaway. En route we will visit the Noah Purifoy Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Art, created by an established artist in the 1980s. Set on a 10-acre desert site and constructed entirely from discarded materials, this remarkable museum is one of California’s undiscovered artistic treasures. Dinner and overnight Palm Springs. (B, D) Thursday October 18 Palm Springs Modern Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Liberace – they all had luxury homes in Palm Springs. There were also luxury resorts, private hideaways, golf courses and other trappings of Hollywood lifestyle, creating a distinctive Desert Modernism style. We spend the day exploring the city’s diverse neighbourhoods to see characteristic homes by noted architects such as Albert Frey and Richard Neutra and civic buildings that influenced public architecture throughout the world. A highlight will be an interior visit of the Frey House II as well as a visit to the Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center. Overnight Palm Springs. (B) Friday October 19 Sunnylands and Taliesin This morning we visit Sunnylands, the former home of Walter and Leonore Annenberg. Designed by A Quincy Jones using modernist geometry and exposed structures, Sunnylands has elegant interiors and museum quality art works. In the late morning we travel by coach to Scottsdale, Arizona. This evening we take a special illuminations tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s beloved winter home, Taliesin West. Opened in 1937 and maintained almost entirely by Wright and his apprentices, Taliesin West is one of his most personal creations. Overnight Scottsdale (B, D) Saturday October 20 Scottsdale modernism This morning we return to Taliesin West for an indepth tour before touring the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, designed in Above: Richard Neutra, considered one of the most important modernist partnership between Wright and Albert Chase McArthur and architects, spent the majority of his career in Southern California; and opened in 1929.