Please Note: The tour departs by motorcoach from downtown Washington, DC with a designated secondary pick-up outside the city. Content delivered by the study leader on the way to the destination, after the secondary pick-up, is an integral part of the study tour experience. Meeting the group once the tour is en route is discouraged.
Proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required for participation on all tours; additionally, current CDC and Smithsonian COVID-19 guidelines (at the time of the tour) will be followed, including but not limited to masks on the bus and indoors.
One of America's most innovative architects, Frank Lloyd Wright experimented with new ways to design homes and integrate them into nature. Fallingwater, Kentuck Knob, and the houses at Polymath Park offer prime examples of this organic architecture. Visit all three locations on an overnight tour to the scenic Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania led by Bill Keene, a writer and lecturer on architecture, urban history, and city planning who has a special interest in Wright.
Perhaps the architect’s most iconic structure, Fallingwater was designed in 1936 as a mountain retreat for the Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh. Cantilevered over a waterfall, it is one of the most dramatic and frequently photographed works of architecture. It is also the only remaining major Wright house with its setting, original furnishings, and artworks intact.
Constructed entirely of Tidewater red cypress and native fieldstone, the house on Kentuck Knob appears almost a part of the mountain on which it is built. Designed by Wright in 1953 for the I.N. Hagan family, Kentuck Knob now houses furnishings and art of the current owners, Lord and Lady Palumbo.
At historic Polymath Park Resort near Fallingwater, privately tour the Usonian-style Mantyla House, the newest to the property, which was recently relocated from Minnesota. Complete your visit with lunch at Tree Tops Restaurant in Polymath Park.
Note: Not all areas of Fallingwater are accessible for visitors with disabilities.
General Information
- Accommodations are at the Comfort Inn Connellsville; all admissions, tours, lodging, meals (two lunches and one breakfast and dinner), and gratuities are included.
- Tour meets and departs by bus from the Mayflower Hotel, Connecticut Ave. and DeSales St., NW, with a pickup stop at I-270 Exit 26 Urbana carpool lot at approximately 8:10 a.m.
- Single-room supplement $60 (factored into the Single Room Member and Single Room Non-Member pricing).
- Singles registering at the double-room rate are paired (on a nonsmoking basis) if possible, but must pay the single-room supplement otherwise.
- Detailed information is emailed to registrants about four weeks prior to departure.
- Registrants may want to consider purchasing trip insurance.
- For additional tour information:
