The sensuously curved cantilevered stair is the first embodiment of all the cantilevered stairs of independent slabs that Marcel Breuer would make a signature of his American work.

As if held timelessly in amber, the intact treasure of the Frank House’s design is Gropius and Breuer’s stunning success of the integration of architecture, furnishings, and landscape.

The home’s soaring expanses of glass and its sensitive rapport with its surrounding grounds suggest a belief in the power of light and environment to nurture the health of body, mind and spirit of all who enter its embrace.

“Everything about this house was created to make it an extraordinarily livable home, and it is... a wonderful, exciting, happy place,” recalls Alan.

“The Frank House is a culmination of the ideal of the complete environment long dreamed of in the European avante-gardes and the Bauhaus, which Walter Gropius founded in 1919 and where Marcel Breuer was one of the earliest and most gifted students.” - Barry Bergdoll

Two thirds of the furniture designs Marcel Breuer would create during his American years were created for the Frank House, and exist nowhere else.

Marcel Breuer developed hundreds of new designs, using new materials and new ways of shaping and finishing wood. Clearly this is his best work.

The house, its interior, and its furnishings down to lighting fixtures and fabrics have been lovingly preserved by Cecelia and Robert’s youngest child, Alan I W Frank. The house is virtually unchanged since the day the family moved in.

Gropius, Breuer and the Franks envisioned the home’s design as skillfully integrating all the requisite disciplines — structure, materials, furnishings and landscape.

Because of Cecelia Frank’s commitment to the Pittsburgh community, guests of all ages, races and nationalities came to visit and stay.

The theme of the sensuously curved cantilevered stair inside is echoed in a sculptural outside stair of concrete taking visitors from the front to the back garden via an open terrace, an alternative dramatic path through the house.

The natural beauty of the Frank House site design and landscaping is layered with bursts of colors shifting throughout the spring and summer.

From the interior space and furnishings, to the exterior facades and landscaping, the Franks’ repeated requests in letters to Gropius and Breuer for “a warm and friendly feeling” to support an active family, social, and cultural life, are realized in this Total Work of Art.