Pittsburgh is not one to pitty
I promised Andrew that I would blog about Pittsburgh, so sorry this is not timely. First, my favorite quote: "Andrew, you don't need your sequenced thong."--Ned.
Two places that I will blog about include: the Pittsburgh Botanical Gardens and Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling water (only an hour and fifteen minutes from Margie and Ned's house). As Margie explained, Pittsburgh is quite nice because of all of the robber barons who lived here in large estates and then donated their land to the city (Phillps, Carnegie, Mellon, Frick to name a few). We found this to be the case at the Botanical Gardens (which put DC's botanical to shame). Chihuly had an art exhibit when we visited, so it was a most incredible art/plant life viewing experience. There were over one thousand pieces of art that were intertwined into the rooms with the plants. Sometimes the pieces were supposed to compliment the art whereas other times the art was supposed to contrast with the room. One of my favorite rooms was one that was desert themed (orange sand and off white plants) and then Chihuly's dark purple glass pieces that shot up from the sand like giant dinasour bones. Here is some more info: http://www.phipps.conservatory.org/chihuly/index.html and some pictures of the flowers he made from glass.
Andrew and I also went to Fallingwater, which we found peaceful and harmonious with nature. Also commissioned by another Pittsburgh robber baron (the founder of Macy's) it was an incredible architecture site. As our tour director said, "It was ahead of its time in the early 1900's and it is in 2007." One of the coolest parts of the house was that Wright avoided corners at great length, so in one case where there had to be a corner, he made the corner movable so that one could remove the corner (as a window hinged on one side...hard to describe). Here is the website if you would like see some pictures...http://www.paconserve.org/index-fw1.asp
So, Pittsburgh is not pittiful at all. I can't wait to go back....
Two places that I will blog about include: the Pittsburgh Botanical Gardens and Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling water (only an hour and fifteen minutes from Margie and Ned's house). As Margie explained, Pittsburgh is quite nice because of all of the robber barons who lived here in large estates and then donated their land to the city (Phillps, Carnegie, Mellon, Frick to name a few). We found this to be the case at the Botanical Gardens (which put DC's botanical to shame). Chihuly had an art exhibit when we visited, so it was a most incredible art/plant life viewing experience. There were over one thousand pieces of art that were intertwined into the rooms with the plants. Sometimes the pieces were supposed to compliment the art whereas other times the art was supposed to contrast with the room. One of my favorite rooms was one that was desert themed (orange sand and off white plants) and then Chihuly's dark purple glass pieces that shot up from the sand like giant dinasour bones. Here is some more info: http://www.phipps.conservatory.org/chihuly/index.html and some pictures of the flowers he made from glass.
Andrew and I also went to Fallingwater, which we found peaceful and harmonious with nature. Also commissioned by another Pittsburgh robber baron (the founder of Macy's) it was an incredible architecture site. As our tour director said, "It was ahead of its time in the early 1900's and it is in 2007." One of the coolest parts of the house was that Wright avoided corners at great length, so in one case where there had to be a corner, he made the corner movable so that one could remove the corner (as a window hinged on one side...hard to describe). Here is the website if you would like see some pictures...http://www.paconserve.org/index-fw1.asp
So, Pittsburgh is not pittiful at all. I can't wait to go back....
posted by Agent Deborah at 4:42 PM
1 Comments:
When the new OKC Art Museum opened, Chihuly's work was featured, and in fact the museum contains an impressive collection of his glass today. I can hardly imagine a better place for his glass than a botanical setting. In a film we saw about him, it seemed that he had many exhibitions outdoors where the light and the colors in nature and in the glass complemented each other very impressively.
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