Friday 8 October 2010 Phoenix
In the morning we visit the Aline Barnsdall Hollyhock House, built in 1920, and named for its ornamental forms. We then have a self-guided external tour of the 1949 Charles and Ray Eames House in Santa Monica, an early example of the Influence of Mies van der Rohe. We fly to Phoenix, a city with a population of 130,000, in the afternoon. In the evening we get the opportunity to see one of the tour highlights, Taliesin West, on the 2 hour Nights Lights tour.

Saturday 9 October 2010 Phoenix
In the morning we return to Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Wright’s winter home and school and now home to the Taliesin Fellowship, for the comprehensive 3 hour Behind-the-Scenes tour. Taliesin reads as part of the surrounding desert and mountain landscape. In the afternoon, subject to there being no theatrical performances, we visit the Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium at Arizona State University, now used as a Performing Arts Centre.

Sunday 10 October 2010 Grand Canyon
Today we take a break to visit one of the world’s natural wonders. We travel by coach to Grand Canyon, a village with a population of 1,500, where we will stay on the Southern Rim. Free afternoon in the Canyon to experience the unfathomable sweep of colour and light.

Monday 11 October 2010 Grand Canyon
Free day in the Grand Canyon. Columbus Day- being a national public holiday there may be events at the Canyon. An opportunity to further explore the Southern Rim or to take helicopter or light plane tours at your own cost. Several of the participants in our 2007 tour group had a memorable helicopter tour to the Colorado River and the Hualapai Indians.

Tuesday 12 October 2010 Madison
We take the coach back to Phoenix and then fly to Madison, a city with a population of 200,000.

Wednesday 13 October 2010 Madison
In the morning another tour highlight, the 2 hour Taliesin House Tour at Spring Green, the residence of Wright and his family and later, the summer home of the Taliesin Fellowship. Taliesin, which rests on the brow of a hill overlooking a valley of the Wisconsin River, has been described as Wright’s autobiography in wood and stone. In the afternoon we visit the 1915 A. D. German Warehouse in Richland Centre, the small (population 5,000) farming town where Wright was born. This is followed by the 1947 Unitarian Church in Shorewood Hills, where Wright believed that light and a ‘geometric type of space’ allowed a structure ‘to achieve the sacred quality particular to worship’.

Thursday 14 October 2010 Chicago
On the way to Chicago by coach we visit the 1906 W. H. Pettit Mortuary Chapel in Belvidere, the only work of its type by Wright, a structure in a cemetery setting. In the afternoon we take a tour with the Chicago Architecture Foundation, the Historic Buildings tour, which takes in nearly 20 buildings including Wright’s 1905 Rookery Building.

Friday 15 October 2010 Chicago
We travel by coach to Wauwatosa in Milwaukee to visit the 1956 Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, with its world-famous drum-shaped concrete structure. We then visit Wingspread, the 1936 H. J. Johnson house that nestles in 16 hectares on Wind Point, a peninsula on the western shore of Lake Michigan near Racine. The house is now used as a conference centre, and the visit is subject to there being no conferences on this day. Later in the afternoon we can visit the exquisite 1936 S. C. Johnson Administration Building (often termed the Johnson Wax Building) in Racine. The ‘great workroom’ of the Administration Building has been called one of Wright’s most ‘astonishing’ places. We can also have a close-up external view of the nearby Research Tower, Wright’s first cantilevered high rise structure. It may be possible to have an internal tour of the Research Tower. The two buildings are considered one of his greatest designs.

Saturday 16 October 2010 Chicago
We travel by coach to spend the day in suburban Chicago, starting with the 1889 – 1909 Home & Studio. Wright constructed the house for himself and his family while working for the Chicago firm of Adler and Sullivan. It is the oldest extant building attributed wholly to Wright. This will be followed by a tour of the area surrounding the Home & Studio which contains the world’s largest concentration of Wright-designed structures, followed by a visit to the 1904 Unity Temple, the ‘first significant American architectural statement in poured concrete’.

Sunday 17 October 2010 Chicago
In the morning we take a tour of the stunning Millennium Park with the Chicago Architecture Foundation. The Park includes two of the finest pieces of urban art in the world, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Frank Ghery’s pedestrian bridge and the Lurie Garden. In the afternoon we visit Wright’s 1906 Robie House which is considered his masterpiece of the Prairie Style.

Monday 18 October 2010 Pittsburgh
We start the day in suburban Chicago with a visit to the 1893 Charnley House. There will be some free time before we fly to Pittsburgh.

Tuesday 19 October 2010 Buffalo
An early start by coach takes us to Bear Run to see the tour highlight, Wright’s 1935 Fallingwater, which was built as a weekend retreat for Edgar J. Kaufmann. The house, considered Wright’s masterwork, is his greatest expression of organic architecture – the union of the structure and the land upon which it is built. We then visit the nearby 1956 Kentuck Knob, before traveling by coach to Buffalo.

Wednesday 20 October 2010 Buffalo
A free day to visit the mighty Niagara Falls.

Thursday 21 October 2010 Buffalo
In the morning we visit the 1904 Darwin D. Martin House, a home described by Wright as a ‘domestic symphony’. In the afternoon we visit Martin’s summer house, the 1927 Graycliff, set against the serenity of Lake Erie.

Friday 22 October 2010 New York
We fly to Philadelphia to visit the 1954 Beth Shalom Synagogue in Elkins Park, where Wright wanted to create the ‘kind of building in which people, on entering it, will feel as if they were resting in the hands of God’.

Saturday 23 October 2010 New York
This morning we visit the 1956 Guggenheim Museum, described as one of the great architectural spaces of the 20th century.

Sunday 24 October 2010 In flight
Depart for Australia.

Monday 25 October 2010 In flight
Tuesday 26 October 2010 Arrival Morning arrival in Australia and tour arrangements conclude.