Events from Fall 2026
In Fall 2026, the Alan I W Frank House Foundation joined with the Carnegie Museum of Art, CMU’s School of Architecture and School of Design, and Pittsburgh AIA to offer a glimpse into Pittsburgh’s hidden masterpiece. Foundation President Darcy Frank Mackay gave two presentations that transported diverse audiences inside a house that has never been open to the public — sharing a personal look at its creation, its extraordinary significance, and its future.
Mackay placed the Frank House at the intersection of Pittsburgh’s most defining forces: its industrial heritage, its culture of innovation, and its long life as a gathering place for artists, architects, and thinkers. The house is not simply a work of architecture — it is a record of a Pittsburgh family who helped build the city’s industrial base, and who then commissioned the founders of the Bauhaus to bring a bold new vision to life on a Shadyside hilltop.
Highlights that illuminate this story include:
- Hundreds of pages of correspondence between house owner Robert Frank — a trained engineer whose family co-founded Copperweld and helped build Pittsburgh’s steel and manufacturing industries — and architects Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, documenting the technical innovations that made their home ahead of its time
- Home video footage of workers erecting the house’s solid steel frame, a hallmark material of Pittsburgh’s industrial history and Robert Frank’s career
- An invitation from Cecelia Frank to the cast of the Broadway musical Hair to join her for Christmas dinner — one of many glimpses into the house as a gathering place for artists, performers, and cultural figures from around the world
Carnegie Museum of Art
The first presentation was held at Carnegie Museum of Art’s Art Theatre, co-presented with CMU’s School of Architecture and School of Design. The event sold out to more than 175 people — Carnegie Museum of Art patrons, the broader Pittsburgh community, and CMU students. Following her presentation, Mackay was joined in conversation by Rachel Delphia, Alan G. and Jane A. Lehman Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at Carnegie Museum of Art, and Kai Gutschow, PhD, Associate Professor of Modern Architectural History and Associate Head of the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University.
Pittsburgh Architecture Week
The Frank House then joined in the citywide celebration of Pittsburgh Architecture Week in partnership with AIA Pittsburgh. The presentation at the Bakery Square Experience Center drew architects, artists, modernism enthusiasts, and members of the broader Pittsburgh community — a fitting audience for a house that embodies the city’s legacy of design, engineering, and ambition.
