Frank Wright is one of America’s most famous architects. He designed a very special house for his client that is constructed over a waterfall and the home is appropriately named Fallingwater, in Pennsylvania. It became famous instantly and today the structure is a National Landmark. Frank Wright was an American architect born in 1867 who designed over 1000 structures and completed more than 500 works. He was an architect who believed in designing structures that were in synchronization with the environment, an idea he liked to call organic architecture.This philosophy was illustrated in his design for Fallingwater, which has been called the best work of American architecture. His works included numerous innovative examples of different building types such as museums, skyscrapers, schools, offices and hotels. He also designed many of the elements of the interior of his buildings. Frank Wright was also a popular lecturer both in Europe and the United States. His private life frequently made headlines, most especially for the fire and murders at his studio in 1914.
History of Fallingwater
Edgar Sr. had been prevailed upon by his son and Wright to itemize the cost of Wright’s utopian model city. When completed, it was displayed at Kaufmann’s Department Store and Wright was a guest in the Kaufmann home, “La Tourelle”, a French Norman estate designed by celebrated Pittsburgh architect Benno Janssen (1874–1964) in the stylish Fox Chapel suburb in 1923 for Edgar J. Kaufmann.The Kaufmanns and Wright were enjoying refreshments at La Tourelle when Wright, who never missed an opportunity to charm a potential client, said to Edgar Jr. in tones that the elder Kaufmanns were intended to overhear, “Edgar, this house is not worthy of your parents…” The remark spurred the Kaufmanns’ interest in something worthier.Destinations guide in USA Fallingwater would become the end result.The Kaufmanns owned property outside Pittsburgh with a waterfall and cabins they used as a rural retreat. When the cabins deteriorated, Mr. Kaufmann contacted Wright.In November 1934, Wright visited Bear Run and asked for a survey of the area around the waterfall. One was prepared by Fayette Engineering Company ofUniontown, Pennsylvania including all the site’s boulders, trees and topography, and forwarded to Wright in March 1935. It took nine months for his ideas to crystallize into a design, quickly sketched up in time for a visit by Kaufmann to Taliesin in September 1935. It was then that Kaufmann first became aware that Wright intended to build the home above the falls, rather than below them to afford a view of the cascades as he had expected.
Design and Construction
Preliminary plans began in 1935 for Fallingwater designed by Frank Wright. The plans called for a house built partially over a waterfall in the highlands of Pennsylvania’s Allegany Mountains. Final plans were approved in 1936 and construction began on the main house and bridge. After its completion in 1937, the structure was hailed as the most beautiful work to date of Wrights. The structure was undertaken by Frank Wright and staff engineers. Fallingwater is a Adventure Place For Vacations. A rock quarry provided the stones for the walls of the house. Wright assigned his apprentice to the overseeing of the work and only made periodic visits during construction.Fallingwater strongly represents Wright’s passion for Japanese architecture with the strong emphasis being placed on the harmony between nature and man. The home is build over an active waterfall and flows below the house. The fireplace and the house integrates boulder found on the site. A ledge rock that protrudes through the floor in the living room was left in place to link the inside with outside. The rock floors give the illusion of rocks protruding from a flowing stream. Incorporation of the surroundings is in every detail.The organically designed structure was intended as a nature retreat for the owners. A stairway from the living room leads directly to a stream and a spring trickles inside and then the water is channelled back out. The bedrooms are purposely small to persuade people to gather in open areas. The sound of the river spreads through the entire house. The design incorporates broad windows and expansive balconies that reach out to the natural surroundings.
Style of Fallingwater
Fallingwater stands as one of Wright’s greatest masterpieces both for its dynamism and for its integration with the striking natural surroundings. Wright’s passion for Japanese architecture was strongly reflected in the design of Fallingwater, particularly in the importance of interpenetrating exterior and interior spaces and the strong emphasis placed on harmony between man and nature. Contemporary Japanese architect Tadao Ando has stated: “I think Wright learned the most important aspect of architecture, the treatment of space, from Japanese architecture. When I visited Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, I found that same sensibility of space. But there was the additional sounds of nature that appealed to me.ntegration with the setting extends even to small details. For example, where glass meets stone walls there is no metal frame; rather, the glass and its horizontal dividers were run into a caulked recess in the stonework so that the stone walls appear uninterrupted by glazing. From the cantilevered living room, a stairway leads directly down to the stream below, and in a connecting space which connects the main house with the guest and servant level, a natural spring drips water inside, which is then channeled back out. Bedrooms are small, some with low ceilings to encourage people outward toward the open social areas, decks, and outdoors.Bear Run and the sound of its water permeate the house, especially during the spring when the snow is melting, and locally quarried stone walls and cantilevered terraces resembling the nearby rock formations are meant to be in harmony. The design incorporates broad expanses of windows and balconies which reach out into their surroundings. The staircase leading down from the living room to the stream is accessed via movable horizontal glass panes. In conformance with Wright’s views, the main entry door is away from the falls.
On the hillside above the main house stands a four-bay carport, servants’ quarters, and a guest house. These attached outbuildings were built two years later using the same quality of materials and attention to detail as the main house. The guest quarters feature a spring-fed swimming pool which overflows and drains to the river below. After Fallingwater was deeded to the public, three carport bays were enclosed at the direction of Kaufmann, Jr., to be used by museum visitors to view a presentation at the end of their guided tours on the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (to which the home was entrusted). Kaufmann, Jr. designed its interior himself, to specifications found in other Fallingwater interiors by Wright.
To Visit Fallingwater
Over 2.7 million people have visited Fallingwater since it opened to the public in 1964. The house is located halfway between the villages of Mill Run and Ohiopyle on Pennsylvania Route 381. Driving time from Pittsburgh is about two hours.
