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2007 Pre-Conference TOurs

* You must be registered in advance for all pre-conference tours.

Fallingwater/Kentuck Knob
Tuesday, June 5, 9 - 4 pm
Price per person: $125 – Minimum: 40 people
Tour includes transportation, admission & box lunch

Take a step into architectural history. In 1936, even before it was finished, knowledgeable people talked about this new work of Frank Lloyd Wright. When Wright came to the site he appreciated the powerful sound of the falls, the vitality of the young forest, the dramatic rock ledges and boulders; these were the elements to be interwoven with the serenely soaring spaces of his structure. But Wright's insight penetrated more deeply. He understood that people were creatures of nature, hence an architecture which conformed to nature would conform to what was basic in people. Fallingwater opened a new chapter in American architecture, and is perhaps rightly considered Wright's greatest work.   

Down the road from Fallingwater, enjoy your box lunch on the grounds of Kentuck Knob, also designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is an excellent example of a high-end Usonian home and was designed in the last decade of Wright’s career. Kentuck Knob’s construction of native sandstone, tidewater cypress, and copper blends naturally with its surroundings in true Wrightian harmony. A sculpture garden with over 35 major works enhances the visitor’s experience.

Collector’s Tour: Art & Architecture
Wednesday, June 6, 9 - 4 pm
Price per person: $180 – Minimum: 25 people
Tour includes transportation & lunch

This tour will take us through some of Pittsburgh’s architecturally significant homes, featuring fine and decorative art collections. We’ll have lunch at a spectacular private home on Mt. Washington, then tour the Sewickly home, where you’ll see that an ever-increasing glass collection can exist in a three-story townhouse. Time permitting, we’ll visit the decorative arts collection at the Frick Museum and family home, Clayton. All venues subject to change.

Walking Architectural Tour of Downtown Pittsburgh
Wednesday, June 6 – Morning Tour, 10 am - 2 pm;
Afternoon Tour, 12 pm - 4 pm
Price per person: $55 – Minimum: 20 people
Tour includes transportation, sit down lunch, tax & gratuity

Downtown Pittsburgh is filled with the juxtaposition of modern and classic buildings. During your guided walking tour, you will view everything from the historic grandeur of the stone Allegheny Courthouse to the majesty of the Union Trust Building, with its Flemish-Gothic design. From the Burke Building, one of the few surviving buildings of the great fire of 1945 to the exquisite glass Pittsburgh Plate Glass building, inspired by the grand public spaces of Europe. The PPG complex has 231 glass pinnacles and stands 680 feet high. Both tours will include lunch (from 12 pm -2 pm) at the historic 1902 Landmark Tavern with
its dark wood, polished brass and glass. You must be registered in advance to attend the Pre- Conference Events.

Industrial Glass Tour
Wednesday, June 6, 10 am - 2 pm
Price per person: $120
Minimum: 20 people; Tour includes transportation & box lunch
 
Before it was known for steel, Pittsburgh was America’s Glass City. Pittsburgh-produced glass has been used in fine tableware for five U.S. presidents, as tiles for the walls of New York City’s great tunnels, and in searchlights at the Panama Canal. This Tour begins at the “Shattering Notions” exhibit at the Senator John Heinz History Center, showcasing the beauty, science, utility and technology of Western Pennsylvania glass over the past 200 years.

Next, everything historical will come to life with a tour of Kopp Glass*, Pittsburgh’s last thriving glass factory! Celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2006, Kopp Glass has seen tremendous changes in the marketplace. With its roots in the development and manufacture of custom colored and industrial glass, Kopp Glass is the leading supplier for the majority of the ten niche markets that it serves.

 From traditional rail and traffic lenses, to the most demanding night vision filter glass applications, Kopp Glass has embraced advances in technology and transformed itself from an “old world” glass company to an organization that can
meet the most demanding technical requirements of modern industrial glass.
 The tour will also visit Glenshaw Glass, a Pittsburgh bottle plant started in 1894 by two local glassblowers and their partners. Explore the techniques used since 1935 at Glenshaw in their manufacture of glass bottles and flasks for beer,
liquors, wine and soda.

* Kopp Glass can only take 10 people at a time. We will have to stagger times (and limit participants to 25 max).

 

 

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