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The Chicago skyline framed by the wooden arches of the South Pond Pavilion in Lincoln Park

Destination

Architecture and technology in the Americas

Chicago's architecture and Silicon Valley's technology companies show students how cities and industries are built from the ground up. Both trips are in the United States.

Subjects: Architecture & Design · STEM & Engineering · Business

Highlights

Where students go

Between them, our two trips cover all six: the first three on the Chicago trip and the last three on the Silicon Valley trip.

  • Frank Lloyd Wright's Oak Park

    Students tour Wright's Home and Studio in Oak Park, then Taliesin, the most complete embodiment of his philosophy of organic architecture.

  • The Chicago skyscraper tour

    A “history of the skyscraper” walking tour, a trip down the river and Mies van der Rohe's Lake Shore Drive Apartments trace the story of Chicago's high-rises.

  • Fallingwater, Pennsylvania

    Wright designed Fallingwater with local materials, in line with his “organic” vision of architecture, in which art is in union with nature.

  • Computer History Museum

    Students learn about the history of computing and the origins of Silicon Valley.

  • Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley

    The University of California, Berkeley's science centre strives to inspire and foster science learning for all.

  • Startups in Palo Alto and Mountain View

    Students visit a startup accelerator or co-working space and hear from founders about startup culture and innovation in Silicon Valley.

2 trips

Americas trips

Chicago is architecture's American proving ground, from Frank Lloyd Wright's organic buildings to the birth of the skyscraper. Silicon Valley, home to Apple, Google and Meta, is where today's technology industry took shape. Students study both first-hand, tracing a straight line from 19th-century design philosophy to the companies building the future.

Learning outcomes

What students gain

Students will be able to:

  • Trace Frank Lloyd Wright's organic architecture philosophy from Oak Park through Taliesin to Fallingwater
  • Read Chicago's skyscrapers as a historical record, from the birth of the skyline to Mies van der Rohe's later work
  • Explain how Silicon Valley's startup ecosystem actually functions, from accelerator to funded company
  • Connect a museum's account of computing history to the technology they use daily
Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house above a waterfall

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