Congress Tours
Delegates were invited to come early and stay late to enjoy Pittsburgh's many cultural attractions. The following tours were available to delegates free of charge and organized by the Local Arrangements Committee.
Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater
Delegates boarded a bus at the Westin Hotel for an afternoon
tour of the house voted the "best all-time work of American
architecture" by The American Institute of Architects. Fallingwater, a
National Historic Landmark, is located in the Laurel Highlands where
the delegates experienced the spectacular fall foliage that draws
visitors from all over the world.
The Carnegie International
Initiated in 1896 by Andrew Carnegie one year after the
Venice Biennale, the Carnegie International is the longest-running
international survey of contemporary art at any museum. The 2013
Carnegie International, opened on October 5, 2013, and brought 35
artists from 19 countries. Delegates were taken by bus to the Carnegie
Museum of Art and were given a private tour by the curators of the
exhibition, followed by a discussion of contemporary art and
placemaking in cities.
The Mattress Factory and Andy Warhol Museum
The Central North Side is a neighborhood in transition that
captures the excitement of art-based place making in action. A bus took
delegates to The Mattress Factory for a private tour of the first
museum dedicated entirely to installation art that began life as a
mattress factory. Delegates then walked through the historic Mexican
War Streets area and Allegheny Commons, the oldest public park in
Pittsburgh. The afternoon concluded with a private tour of the Andy
Warhol Museum, the largest museum in the world dedicated to a single
artist, native Pittsburgher Andy Warhol.
August Wilson's Pittsburgh
August Wilson was the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and
author whose ten plays, collectively known as The Pittsburgh Cycle, are
considered to be the most significant depiction of African American
life in the twentieth century. The New York Times wrote upon his death
in 2005, that “… Mr. Wilson depicted the struggles of black Americans
with uncommon lyrical richness, theatrical density and emotional heft,
in plays that gave vivid voices to people on the frayed margins of
life: cabdrivers and maids, garbagemen and side men and petty
criminals.” Nine of his plays are set in the Hill District neighborhood
of Pittsburgh. On this bus and walking tour, delegates viewed the Hill
District as August Wilson experienced it during his childhood and
coming of age in Pittsburgh.
Oakland: The City Beautiful: Eds to Meds
The Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh is home to the
University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Carlow
University, UPMC medical complex, the Carnegie Library and Museums, and
the Phipps Conservatory. This tour focused on the Oakland neighborhood
as a place of plans and change, encompassing stakeholders and
community activists across the breadth of this “eds and meds”
neighborhood. Despite its prominence as the City Beautiful, the Oakland
neighborhood also showed strains of failed American urban policy. The
bus and walking tour began with a brief review of public housing in
Pittsburgh and the racial implications of these policies over time,
beginning with the redevelopment of Terrace Village into Oak Hill, a
HOPE VI mixed income housing development. The tour continued through the
institutional side of Oakland and concluded at the opening reception
at Carnegie Mellon University, after visiting Schenley Plaza, the
vibrant new pubic park in the heart of Oakland, and Phipps
Conservatory, a leader in green building.
Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob
Delegates boarded a bus at the Westin Hotel for a tour of the house voted the "best all-time work of American architecture" by the American Institute of Architects. Fallingwater, a National Historic Landmark, is located in the Laurel Highlands where delegates experienced the spectacular fall foliage that draws visitors from all over the world. Nearby Fallingwater is Kentuck Knob, where delegates toured a one-story Usonian house designed by Wright on a hexagonal model, a signature design. Kentuck Knob was purchased by Lord Peter Palumbo in 1986 and opened to the public.
Strip District Stroll: Ethnic Foods and Urban Living
Delegates boarded a Molly's Trolley and traveled to Pittsburgh's Strip District, a lively urban marketplace of family-owned ethnic stores, fish and produce merchants, antique galleries, specialty shops, and more. Participants shopped and wandered, and toured the historic St. Stanislas Church, Pittsburgh Opera headquarters (located in the former Westinghouse Air Brake Company building), and the Armstrong Cork Factory, now housing 297 loft apartments. In addition, participants laerned about plans for a new mixed-use riverfront development.