Pittsburgh
The Steel City and The City of Bridges
My first solo-trip to any American city was to Pittsburgh. Solo in the sense that I did not know anyone living there. But I knew about it. You do learn a lot about who you are when you travel by yourself. This gave me a lot of time to reflect on many aspects of my life while experiencing a gorgeous and vibrant city. Duolingo, Warhol, Carnegie Mellon, and other amazing aspects of this city quickly made this foreign land more familiar. I quickly became an honorary Yinzer.
The Cathedral of Learning
Classrooms designed from the ground up based on a country's (or continent's) unified culture. Some of the classrooms approach with a pars pro toto design to account for the huge diversity of a country. Some classrooms are snapshots of cultures that have changed. Others are synecdoches. Carve out two or three days to visit these classrooms. There are beautiful narrations, details, and energies that can be experienced in each classroom.
Fallingwater
What a beauty! A Frank Lloyd Wright gem situated on 1,500 acres of land entrusted to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. Even though it is rumored that Wright designed it under an hour, the approach with organic space and the artistic vision that ensued during its construction make it an iconic structure.