Polymath Park

What a treat to see 2 of the homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright! If I had my ukelele I'd write a song about the dreamy retro FLW treehouse I WANNA LIVE IN(^^)A delightful tour! We loaded up in the mini bug and headed through the woods! These would have been the more affordable mass produced homes for regular folks. The bedroom and bathrooms are surprisingly BIGGER than the pricier homes (like fallingwater)!I have a new appreciation for Frank Lloyd Wright. Although he apparently was sassy and difficult , his homes were special. Like a fin on a Cadillac ElDorado... these houses were of their time. I'm a big fan.Bonus: you can actually arrange to spend the night in these!! Limited to 4 people max per home... yes you get the whole home ! A splendid afternoon!!!

I have a mixed review for this place based on a group of us purchasing the $100 combination brunch and tour. I would highly recommend doing something À la carte like taking the tour alone for $28, which is a great tour of two beautiful houses. Very informative and open. Five stars for the tour portion. The $72 difference which gets you the brunch is very much overpriced. The treetop dining areas are great but the food offered and the mimosas for drinks are not. Our meal was comprised of small portions of quiche, sausage patty, trout, green beans, potatoes and a fruit compote. The mimosas which were served hardly had any champagne detectable in them.Definitely take the tour, but think twice about bundling brunch along with it for the total $100 ticket (plus gratuity).

Polymath Park is very near Fallingwater. Fallingwater has been on my bucket list for years, and when I made a trip to see it, I thought I should check out Polymath Park, too! Polymath Park is such an interesting property. It's a large piece of land with four historic homes on it (for now - when we were there, we saw containers - a new home is being constructed soon - a FWL Jr. home!). On this land in the 1960s, two Pittsburgh families hired an architect who studied with Frank Lloyd Wright - Peter Berndtson - to build them Usonian vacation homes in the woods. Many years later, the land and the homes were purchased by the owners of the TreeTops Restaurant nearby. When a Frank Lloyd Wright house came up for sale, the Duncan home was deconstructed and reconstructed on the property. Later, another FLW home - Mantyla - was deconstructed and reconstructed on the property. [The homes are deconstructed and reconstructed, because they would have been torn down otherwise!] When you're here and taking the tour, it's clear that this is a passion project. The owners of the property clearly care so much about protecting and preserving these homes. It's a special place. Polymath Park offers several tour options: lunch tour (three-house tour with lunch at TreeTops Restaurant, $65/person), dinner tour (three-house tour with dinner at TreeTops Restaurant, $123/person), brunch tour (two-house tour with brunch, $98/person), Wright Collection house tour (two-house tour, $26/person), and more. We did the lunch tour. It's 2.5 hours long and includes a tour of the Mantyla House, the Duncan House, and Peter Berndtson's Balter House. We had lunch at TreeTops Restaurant and then walked to a shuttle bus that drove us to the three houses. When you book the lunch tour, you are given a very limited, set menu to choose from, which includes an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. The appetizer was more of a single bite, amuse bouche, but it was fine. The entree options were just a salad with tuna salad, chicken salad, or roasted veggies. I got the chicken salad and thought it was a pretty good version of what it was. My husband hates all mayo-based "salads" (tuna salad, egg salad, chicken salad), so his only option was the roasted vegetable salad. It was fine but it felt like one of those throw away dishes a restaurant has on the menu for vegetarians or vegans. The dessert was fine, a peach bar. We saw (and smelled) some of the food that people were ordering who hadn't booked the lunch tour and were able to order from the whole menu. The rest of the menu looked (and smelled) much more delicious than what was offered the limited set menu for the lunch tour! I imagine this is because they need to offer something that is very quick to make since they have to ensure that you have eaten and paid within an hour so you can get on your tour. However, I recommend arriving earlier and ordering off the regular menu and then going on the Wright House collection tour. (You will miss the Berndtson house tour, but it wasn't the highlight of Polymath for me, and I think leisurely lunch at TreeTops followed by the two-house tour is the way to go!)Our tour guide was lovely - very interested in the history of the property as well as the individual homes. I learned a lot. The two FLW homes (Mantyla and Duncan) were were very different from each other and fascinating to tour. If you're a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright or American architectural history (or if you're nearby at Fallingwater), Polymath Park is well worth a visit. I'm excited to see how Polymath Park expands and changes in the next few years! I would visit again as I think it's likely to expand!

The two house tour we took was outstanding. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable about the homes and gave details when needed. Small group (!), plenty of time to examine the homes and rooms, ask question, no rush! Great opportunities for still photography. Fallingwater is always nice, but this was better. The guide made all the difference! Fallingwater's was not good at all.Put this on your must see list if you love FLW. We'll be back!

One of the cooler trips recently, stopped here on a Sunday and took the tour of three of the 4 houses. I enjoyed listening to the history of how and why they are now there. The tour guide was nice, but due to us starting the tour 15min late, we were rushed the whole time to keep up their schedule. Got plenty of pictures - would be cool to stay at one for a night but just being able to walk the grounds and houses of Frank Lloyd Wright is good enough for me.

We did not get to stay the night but we took the tour and loved it! If you are a Frank Lloyd Wright fan, this is a must see. If you have seen Falling Water this is a great way to compliment the visit. Much less crowded and very personalized experience. Our guide Ricky was wonderful. Definitely recommend

While making plans to visit Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob, learned about Polymath Park; we decided to add that to our list, and we're glad we did. Others have described the layout, so I won't repeat that. We did not do one of the tours that included a meal, so we just visited the houses. After seeing Fallingwater, it was fun to see what a more modest FLW-designed house was like! Your jaw won't drop, as it might with Fallingwater, but it's well worth the visit. We had brought picnic lunches with us, and after the tour enjoyed them at one of the tables outside the visitor center in very lovely surroundings.

I REALLY don't want to share this secret because then it'll be harder to book stays here. You can stay at 2 houses designed by Wright and 2 designed by Wright-apprentice Peter Berndston. We stayed in Balter for our anniversary and it's like sleeping in a luxe tree house, so peaceful. We reported some maintenance issues (lights not working) and Polymath offered to come fix it that evening but we deferred. The next morning, we were surprised that Tom, the founder, came to fix them bright and early. We also booked a house tour and tapas in a TreeTops pod. Everyone on staff was so helpful and friendly. We ordered takeout from TreeTops to eat at the house on our last night. It's such an enriching feeling to stay in such a thoughtfully-designed, soul-restoring house and quiet location. Already booked our return trip for my birthday.

I haven't had a chance to review this place since visiting in September so here it is. By far "The Worst" staff I have ever encountered in any avenue of customer service and I have visited many of his houses as well all across the country.I let the people who were supposedly in charge(acted like they were at least) know and they said they would correct it, but I have a feeling since I was never contacted that it wasn't.They said the tour guide was rather new, but I also have a feeling that was a lie to cover their tracks of his poor choice of words, bad attitude and superiority complex.I'll never come back to this place and I love the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, but he would be ashamed of the people you employee here.There is nothing even remotely good about this location or staff!

Stayed overnight in one of the rental homes after a great 7 course meal at Tree Tops. Finished the 2 day experience with the 4 house tour.