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At Home With: Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater
Fortunately for Mr. Wright, the commission came along as he was nearing a decade of virtually no work. In fact, Phillip Johnson, a noted architect trained in the International Style, had proclaimed Wright to be the greatest architect of the last (19th) century. Some rivals and contemporaries of Wright's thought he had withered and died!
After Wright's initial visit to the site, he noted in a letter to the Kaufmann's, dated December 26, 1934, that: "The visit to the waterfall in the woods stays with me and a domicile has taken vague shape in my mind to the music of the stream." There are two dominating elements in the setting of Fallingwater that greatly impressed Frank Lloyd Wright: the first being the presence of Bear Run and series of cascades running immediately below the house; and secondly, the Nature (which Wright always spelled with a capital "N") of the site with its many wooded slopes, cliff edges and lush native rhododendron shrubs weaving through the forest. It was not unlike Wright to quickly read the conditions of a building site and to let its most salient features inspire his designs. Frank Lloyd Wright's love affair with the natural world began as a child on his Welsh ancestor's family farm in Spring Green, Wisconsin, later named Taliesin. While working on the farm, Wright gained an understanding of nature's form and processes. He studied the "play" of light and shadows; he observed foliage to its finite degree and understood nature's seemingly unpredictable powers of chaos and beauty. Wright came to believe that a "proper" house should be one that is integral to its site, integral to its environment and integral to the life of the inhabitants. "Houses were places to be fitted to the clients, like a tailor fits a suit," said Wright. He coined this unique architectural style as "Organic." When Wright's clients saw the first sketches for their weekend retreat, they were surprised that he placed the house above the falls and not on the slope looking towards them. When confronted about this, Wright replied, "I want you to live with the waterfall, not just look at it, but for it to become an integral part of your lives." Not only is Fallingwater poetic in design, but it also demonstrates this kind of connection between man and Nature better than any of Wright's other creations.
The stonework throughout Fallingwater is equally, if not more impressive, than the integration of building to site. The walls are laid up in a series of stratified layers with some stones projecting out mimicking the natural cliff edges seen throughout the hillsides, which Wright keenly observed and was immediately inspired by. All the stone that was used for construction was quarried on the property less than fifty yards away. The flagstone floors throughout the interior of the house (coated with many layers of Johnson's Wax-another client of Wright's) is reminiscent of the streambed. This detail was another example of Wright's philosophy of connecting man with Nature by a seamless merging of the inside with the outdoors. The cantilevers at Fallingwater are nothing short of daring. The house seems to soar in all directions like a hawk seeking its prey. These cantilevers were a source of worry and contention for both Edgar Kaufmann and his contractor. At one point, Frank Lloyd Wright nearly quit, accusing Kaufmann of not trusting his genius, when he learned that Mr. Kaufmann had hired an engineering firm-Metzger-Richardson from Pittsburgh-to review Wright's plans and provide additional structural measures. They doubled the number of steel bars for the reinforced concrete from 8 to 16. Wright was furious when he found this out and in an angry letter to Kaufmann, Sr., he wrote, "I have put so much more into this house than you or any other client has a right to expect, that if I don't have your confidence-to hell with the whole thing." Wright was aware of how this new "design of reinforced concrete, supported largely by massive natural stone boulders and concrete piers could be exploited as an engineering marvel, and Kaufmann eventually conceded. But the concern of the sagging cantilevers haunted Kaufmann, Sr. so much (until his death in 1955) that he commissioned a surveyor on a regular basis to measure the deflections of all three terraces. Certainly, the engineering of Fallingwater was radical at the time and would not be acceptable by today's standards. Interestingly enough, Kaufmann, Sr. and the firm of Metzger-Richardson were correct in saying that Wright did not provide enough support and, as a result, the famed terraces began to deflect as soon as they were built. Now, two years after nearly a $11.5 million dollar restoration that included post-tension cabling of the terraces, the strengthening of Fallingwater's cantilever beams will guarantee the structural stability of the house for years to come.
 When Fallingwater was completed in 1938, the Kaufmann's soon realized that they needed another facility for guests (some of the likes which included Albert Einstein, the Mexican painter Frieda Kahlo, and the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto). Once again Wright was commissioned to design a guesthouse almost directly behind the main house. This addition is connected to the main house by a half-circle, step-stone walk consisting of a reinforced concrete roof over this outdoor passage (also considered to be another engineering marvel). This "canopy" is supported by pipe columns set at one edge only. The "folds" of the concrete serve to reinforce the cantilever, while the curve of the structure prevents it from falling over. When one of Mr. Wright's apprentices, Bob Mosher, questioned how the canopy could be supported by steel posts only at the circumference, Wright vigorously raised his forearm and bent his hand to the horizontal position, noting that his hand could bend no more and demonstrated his ingenious blending of structure and form. In 1963, Edgar Kaufmann, Jr. entrusted Fallingwater to the Western PA Conservancy, believing that the Conservancy would be a better guardian because it was "devoted to the salutary and encompassing values of human life in touch with nature."
The beauty and drama of Fallingwater's design earned it a place in architectural history as the best all-time work of American architecture in the 20th century by American Institutes of Architects, 1991. But the real experience of Fallingwater is the simple, quiet and magical way in which the building sets man in Nature. This is something Mr. Wright characteristically praised himself for-praise that unequivocally seems validated. Fallingwater is located in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. Telephone 724.329.8501. www.paconserve.org
Reservations for any given day sometimes fill up very quickly. Please contact the visitor services office at 724-329-8501 for information and assistance.
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The commission for Fallingwater came to Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935, when he was sixty-eight years old. Wright had been encouraged to build the famous structure by Edgar J. Kaufmann, Jr., a Taliesin apprentice and son of Liliane and Edgar Kaufmann, Sr., the successful owner of the Pittsburgh department store by the same name. Edgar, Jr. persuaded his parents to meet Mr. Wright (as he was adamant about being addressed) when he learned they were seeking an architect to design a weekend house in a forested area of the Laurel Highlands just 65 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, PA. The Kaufmann's had come to recognize the crisp, clean mountain air as an elixir and a place to retreat from the industrial smog of the city. Besides being one of the favorite places for the Kaufmann's to visit, the Fallingwater location had formerly been a Masonic summer camp and later a summer recreational facility for the Kaufmann's store employees. They often stood under the falls, slid down the cascades and sunbathed and picnicked on the boulder ledges.
