Frank Lloyd Wright's FALLINGWATER

A visit to this incredibly exceptional home has been on our list since we learned about the talented architect who designed it. Chuck knew I would love it and he was 100% correct (my big brother knows me so well). WOW.

The tour description reads, "A Fallingwater educator will be your guide as you experience Frank Lloyd Wright’s most recognized example of the union of architecture and nature. As you walk the beautiful forested grounds and explore the house from both interior spaces and outdoor cantilevered terraces, you will closely examine Fallingwater’s intimate relationship with the mountainous landscape that inspired its design. Inside the living room, one of modern architecture’s most iconic spaces, you will experience Wright’s pioneering idea of breaking the box and see an exceptional collection of fine and decorative art as well as custom-made furniture designed by Wright specifically for Fallingwater."

A little background history is always needed. The mid-1930s were among the darkest years for architecture and architects in American history; the country’s financial system had collapsed with the failure of hundreds of banks. Almost no private homes were built. Many of the architectural projects started during the boom of the late 1920s were halted for lack of funds. Now in his sixties, Wright and his new wife Olgivanna were struggling to keep Taliesin, his Wisconsin home and studio, out of foreclosure. Worse still, his peers were beginning to regard Wright as an irrelevant anachronism whose time had passed.

The Wrights devised an architectural apprenticeship program that came to be known as the “fellowship” where wealthy patrons paid Mr. Wright to not only learn from him but they experienced hands-on training by building his projects. Among the first candidates was Edgar Kaufmann Jr., who became enamored with Wright after reading his biography. Kaufmann was the son of Pittsburgh department store tycoon Edgar Kaufmann Sr., whose thirteen-story downtown Pittsburgh emporium was reported to be the largest in the world. Kaufmann Senior was no stranger to architectural pursuits—he was involved in numerous public projects and built several stores and homes. Kaufmann let Wright know that he had several civic architectural projects in mind for him. He and his wife Liliane were invited to Taliesin and were duly impressed.

There are varying accounts regarding the circumstances that brought Kaufmann to offer Wright a chance to design a “weekend home” in the country; but we know that Wright made his first trip to the site on Bear Run, Pennsylvania, in December, 1934. Wright’s apprentice Donald Hoppen has spoken of Wright’s “uncanny sense of...genius loci” (Latin for "spirit of the place") and from the very beginning, the architect rejected a site that presented a conventional view of the waterfall; instead, he audaciously offered to make the house part of it, stating that the “visit to the waterfall in the woods stays with me and a domicile takes shape in my mind to the music of the stream.” The South-southeast orientation gives the illusion that the stream flows, not alongside the house, but through it.

In his book, Fallingwater Rising: Frank Lloyd Wright, E. J. Kaufmann, and America's Most Extraordinary House, Franklin Toker wrote that, "this delicate synthesis of nature and the built environment probably counts as the main reason why Fallingwater is such a well-loved work. The contouring of the house into cantilevered ledges responds so sympathetically to the rock strata of the stream banks that it does make Bear Run a more wondrous landscape than it had been before."

Almost from the day of its completion, Fallingwater was celebrated around the world. The house and its architect were featured in major publications including the cover of Time Magazine. Over the years its fame has only increased. According to Franklin Toker, Fallingwater’s most important contribution to Modern Architecture is surely the "acceptance of Modern architecture itself."

So who was this man who hired Mr. Wright to create a masterpiece and where did his money come from? At its height, Kaufmann’s Department Store was more than just a retail palace. Its best-known owner, Edgar J. Kaufmann, was heralded as a merchant prince and became a benefactor of numerous causes throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania.

The store was founded by a pair of brothers, Jacob and Isaac Kaufmann, as a menswear and tailoring store in 1871 in Pittsburg. Two more brothers, Morris and Henry, would emigrate from Germany to join the store, by 1887 Kaufmann’s had become a full-fledged department store, adding women’s apparel, housewares, and other products. This wasn't just any store, Edgar knew what his customers needed. Women in those days didn't drive. If you bought at Kaufmann's, your packages would be delivered for you so you didn't have to carry them on the bus to get them home. Store clerks were hired who spoke the various languages of the customers (Pittsburg was a melting pot and it was comforting to be helped by people who understood you).

Edgar and Liliane had only one son. After his father’s death in 1955, Edgar Kaufmann jr. inherited Fallingwater, continuing to use it as a weekend retreat until the early 1960s. Increasingly concerned with ensuring Fallingwater’s preservation, and following his father’s wishes, he entrusted Fallingwater and approximately 1,500 acres of land to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy as tribute to his parents. Edgar jr. guided the organization’s thinking about Fallingwater’s administration, care, and educational programming and was a frequent visitor even as guided public tours began in 1964. Kaufmann’s partner, the architect and designer Paul Mayén also contributed to the legacy of Fallingwater with a design for the site’s visitor center, completed in 1981.

To walk in the footsteps of these amazing people was beyond exciting.

Everything was as it was when the Kaufmanns lived there. I delighted in perusing their bookshelves.

It's difficult to envision these Cherokee red (Wright's signature color) windows when they are opened. They are unbelievable in that the entire corner of the room disappears and you are truly 'outside'. Breathtaking and innovative!

"Fallingwater is a great blessing - one of the great blessings to be experienced here on earth, I think nothing yet ever equaled the coordination, sympathetic expression of the great principle of repose where forest and stream and rock and all the elements of structure are combined so quietly that really you listen not to any noise whatsoever although the music of the stream is there. But you listen to Fallingwater the way you listen to the quiet of the country..." -Frank Lloyd Wright

How about the guest house pool? It can't be treated with chlorine due to its flow into the creek so it's a bit green but what a cool feature to have, perched above it all.

“….there are many places where conversation,

and Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, can be studied;

there is nowhere else where [Fallingwater]

his architecture can felt so warmly, appreciated so intuitively.

That is the beginning of wisdom. . . .”

-Edgar Kaufmann, jr.

How truly special to share this with Chuck. Man, I am one happy little sister!

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Right near Falling Water, Mr. Wright also designed Kentuck Knob. It is gorgeous! Well worth seeing.; October 8, 2023 at 4:37 AM
Four Points Bulletin said...: What an amazing home! I have always wanted to go there. I can't believe you can tour the inside! Just the outside alone would be worth a visit, especially in the water were running. Wright sure put his peers in their place for doubting his greatness!; October 11, 2023 at 6:29 AM

HAERR TRIPPIN'

Frank Lloyd Wright's FALLINGWATER

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