I’ve long wanted to see Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece, and finally had the chance last weekend. It did not disappoint.
My only regret is that visitors aren’t permitted to photograph inside the house, which is visually stunning at every turn. So now my new challenge is to find a way to get permission – or an assignment – to shoot the interior at Fallingwater. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this little walk around the exterior.
Pittsburgh retailer Edgar Kaufmann, for whom the Fallingwater house was built, owned 1600 acres that were preserved from timber harvesting and first used as a summer camp for his employees. In 1934 Kaufmann asked to Wright design a house on the property with a view of the falls on Bear Run Creek. Wright surprised his client by designing the house over the falls, incorporating the natural environment into the structure of the house itself.
In 1963 Kaufmann’s son donated the house and all its furnishings (also designed by Wright) to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, to be preserved as a museum. The property in its entirety remains not only a testament to a visionary architect, but a magnificent example of American eastern hardwood forest.
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