Fallingwater, built directly over the falls
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I visited Pittsburgh for the first time in 1994 and one of the great day-tours was to Fallingwater. This home was near Mill Run in Pennsylvania, designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) in 1935 and completed in 1937. The house was designed as a private residence for the Pittsburgh department store owner, Edgar Kaufmann (1885-1955), his wife Lillian (1889-1952) and their son.
Edgar I commissioned Wright to design a weekend retreat on the family’s land near Pittsburgh. Kaufmann had been introduced to Wright by his son in 1934, when the lad participated in Wright’s Taliesin Training Fellowship for architects and artists. Wright was 67 at the meeting, with few commissions in the midst of the Great Depression. His career was nearing retirement, the early success of his Prairie style residences in the early 1900s having long declined.
Construction of Fallingwater finally began in 1936. Local craftsmen and labourers were hired, and materials were directly excavated from the Kaufmanns’ land. Wright might have been nudging 70, but he still had a bold vision for architecture. Fallingwater would be a masterpiece of Wright’s theories on organic architecture, which sought to integrate humans, architecture and nature together so that each one would be improved by the relationship. Wright believed that architecture must sit comfortably within its natural landscape, replicate its forms and use its materials. So Fallingwater grew from the site’s rocky landscape. Its concrete terraces floated directly above the waterfalls, drawing attention to the water. Their horizontal forms highlighted the boulders below. Although the terraces appeared to hover, they were anchored to the central stone chimney using cantilevers!
The windows blended into natural stonewalls and fireplace,
and corners were made of glass for unobstructed views
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Hence the expansive terraces occupied half the building, while the interior spaces were small with low ceilings, creating a sheltered cave in the rugged landscape. The building drew nature inside its 3 floors: natural cliffs protruded from the central fire-place and the sound of rushing water was always present. The design focused on the central fireplace, and the home offered unique features like customised niches to display the Kaufmanns’ art works.
Fallingwater was mainly complete in 1937, with the family soon occupying the residence. It gained more fame when Time Magazine featured Wright and the building plan on its Jan 1938 cover; the daring construction over a waterfall was instrumental in reviving Wright’s architecture career.
Wright added a guest house in sandstone quarried from the property, in 1939. Fallingwater had proved that Wright was an enduring visionary ready for the rest of his career. Some of his most high-profile commissions came after, including the Guggenheim Museum in N.Y. The Kaufmanns continued to reside in Fallingwater.
Light and garden views stream into the loungeroom
INSIDEWRIGHT
Son Edgar Kaufmann II (1910-1989) attended the School for Arts & Crafts at the Austrian Museum of Applied Art in Vienna, in the late 1920s. Then he studied painting for 3 years in Florence. After reading Frank Lloyd Wright's autobiography, young Edgar decided to become a resident apprentice in architecture at Wright's Taliesin East School and Studio from 1933-4.
When he left Wright's Taliesin Fellowship in 1935, Edgar II joined the family business and became merchandise manager for home furnishings, and in 1938, worked for the Kaufmann Dept Stores. In 1940 Edgar wrote to Alfred Barr of the Museum of Modern Art/MOMA, proposing the Organic Design in Home Furnishings Competition, won by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen.
He served with the Army Air Forces from 1942-6 in WW2. After, he became director of the Industrial Design Dept at M.O.M.A in NY. Edgar's greatest success during his time at MOMA was the Good Design Programme of 1950-5, in which the museum joined with the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, promoting design in household furniture.
Fallingwater architect, Frank Lloyd Wright
MinnieMuse
After his father's death in 1955, Edgar II inherited Falling-water, using it as a mountain retreat. Acting on his father’s wishes, Edgar entrusted the building and surrounding land to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 1963. In 1964 Fallingwater opened to the public as an architectural house museum, surrounded by 5,100 acres of natural land called the Bear Run Nature Reserve. Fallingwater was the only major Wright work to come into the public domain with its original furnishings and artwork intact.
From 1963-86, Edgar II was Ass professor of Architecture and Art History at Columbia Uni and wrote books on architecture and modern design. When he died in 1989, Edgar II’s ashes were scattered around Fallingwater by his partner since the 1950s, Paul Mayén. 21 pieces of the family’s art and sculpture collection were auctioned at Sotheby's New York - works of Mondrian, Léger, Klee, Picasso, Braque, Monet, Matisse, de Kooning, Calder, Duchamp and Miró. Finally Paul Mayén oversaw the building of Fallingwater’s pavilion from 1979-81, housing the café, gift store and visitor’s centre.
In 2019 the residence was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, along with 7 other Lloyd Wright designs. In total 5+ million visitors have toured Fallingwater.