National magazine names Bear Run, Fallingwater most beautiful places in Pa
A historic contribution to architecture and nature reserve in Fayette County have been named the most beautiful destinations in Pennsylvania by a national magazine.
Passport Magazine listed Bear Run Nature Reserve and Fallingwater in Mill Run the most beautiful destinations in Pennsylvania, compiling a list of the most beautiful places in each state.
“We’re honored to have Bear Run Nature Reserve, which includes Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural masterpiece, Fallingwater, named as the most beautiful place to visit in Pennsylvania,” said Andrew Zadnik the director of land stewardship with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. “We’re proud to offer visitors the chance to experience this wilderness, whether through a family day hike, a weekend backpacking excursion, fly-fishing for native brook trout in a headwater stream or explore Fallingwater.”
Bear Run Nature Reserve is the flagship property of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and offers over 20 miles of hiking trails, back-country campsites and hunting and fishing opportunities.
The reserve is managed by the conservancy to protect, conserve and restore land and water for the diversity of the region’s native plants, animals and their ecosystems.
Anna Weltz, director of public relations with GO Laurel Highlands, said it’s exciting and rewarding to see local tourism assets highlighted in national and international publications.
Located in the reserve is Fallingwater, which was designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright for department-store owner Edgar Kaufmann in the mid 1930s.
The house showed off Wright’s style of incorporating a natural environment to a man-made structure as the house sits over the falls.
The location opened for public tours in 1964 and became a National Historic Landmark in 1976.
“Perhaps better than any other single work, Fallingwater exemplifies Wright’s concept of organic architecture as the harmonious union of architecture and nature,” said Justin W. Gunther, the director of Fallingwater and vice president of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. “This connection to the land is part of what makes Fallingwater more than just a building – it is an aesthetic experience that centers on the unique relationship between a great work of architecture and a strikingly beautiful natural site.”
Weltz said the conservancy has done a tremendous job preserving Fallingwater and the surrounding Bear Run.
“Fallingwater is perhaps our most iconic attraction and is often a gateway to introducing visitors to all that the Laurel Highlands had to offer,” she said.
To view the entry in Passport Magazine, visit passportmagazine.com/the-most-beautiful-destination-in-each-state-part-iv/ ?platform=hootsuite&utm_campaign=HSCampaign.