So the trip anticipated in the OP was postponed several times and did not occur until last week. I thought I would update with some thoughts:
We drove to Pittsburgh and stayed the night. After arriving we took a walk around Fort Pitt, visited the little museum on the site, and basically walked through downtown. The city has some superb architecture, and I can imagine that in an earlier time, it was a very exciting place to be. Today, as with most (all?) big urban centers, it is somewhat depressing, with empty storefronts and sidewalks. The museum was absolutely worth an hour or so; it focuses on the role of the fort in the founding story through the French and Indian War, which gets short shrift in most museums
We stayed in the Renaissance on 6th Street. Highly recommended. We had a gigantic room which was well appointed and very clean. Staff was excellent too.
We ate at Bar Marco, which I cannot recommend more strongly. A very (very) small menu, 2 courses for $45 with local ingredients. I had a tomato risotto that tasted of August. Superb. The restaurant sits in a neighborhood called the Strip which is stuffed with bars and restaurants. Worth a visit just to walk around
The following am we went to the Carnegie complex of museums in the Oakland neighborhood. We spent most of our time in the excellent art museum, but the natural history museum is worth time too. Very highly recommended.
Then off to Fallingwater. I won’t add to the reams of commentary written on the house and the property or on Wright’s genius/megalomania. We had a superb guide on a 90 minute tour, which in advance sounded to me like excess but ended up being fascinating beginning to end. He described the constant battle between Wright and the Kaufman family that commissioned the house, who had the temerity to want to choose the furnishings. The house itself and the site in which it sits are just breathtaking. You can see why it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I was eager to visit, but came away actually affected by the experience. Again, I cannot recommend it more highly. NOTE: it is way the F out in the Laurel Highlands, and the route there is bewildering. A couple of times, we felt like the GPS was directing us to turn into someone’s driveway.
We stayed in the neighborhood at the Summit Inn. We were exhausted and it was adequate but no more. If we were to visit again (a possibility) we’d stay at the Nemacolin resort nearby.