Day 13:
Fallingwater
This was a
day that I have long anticipated – a visit to Falling Water, arguably the
world’s most famous house for a single family (barring palaces of course). It started very well with Roger learning that
his beloved Essendon had defeated Collingwood by 18 points in this year’s Anzac
Day match!
Fallingwater
is a ninety minute drive south of Pittsburgh, again through beautiful farmland
with the typical red and white American barns dotted throughout. I hope this
blog does not constitute too much of a lecture, but it is certainly what I will
be telling my students on my return.
The famous
house is situated on a property of several acres, originally called ‘Bear Run’.
It is a hilly bushland site, full of rocky outcrops and a small stream flowing
through it. Several of the rocky
outcrops have formed a waterfall. It was
owned by Edgar Kaufmann, a man who had accumulated considerable wealth from
owning a Department store in Pittsburgh.
He and his wife had a small shack on the property which they used as a
weekender.
By 1934
they decided that they wanted more of the modern comforts of home at Bear Run. Kaufmann’s
son, Edgar jnr. was studying architecture under Frank Lloyd Wright, who was in
his sixties and considering retirement.
He persuaded his parents to engage Wright as an architect for the new
home.
Kaufmann
and his wife, Liliana, gave Wright ‘carte blanche’ for the design. The brief was to involve the natural
surrounds, especially the waterfall. Undoubtedly they meant that they wanted to
gain good views of the natural surrounds. They also directed that they have
seclusion from the road that had only recently been sealed and was therefore
now carrying a considerable amount of traffic.
After
visiting the site, Wright ordered topographical maps of the property. His vision was to ‘use the power of
architecture to touch people in profound ways’. His design certainly did that
and the Kaufmanns must have thought he had taken leave of his senses when he
presented to them his design of a house that not only looked at the waterfall,
it was built right over it!
The civil
engineers of the day said that it couldn’t be done but maybe this was prior to
council permission being needed before a design could be built. In any case, the building went ahead and was
achieved in just two years. It still stands strong today, nearly one hundred
years later, albeit with the help of a few million dollars thrown at it here
and there by its current owners, the American Conservation Authority.
This steep,
rocky site did not allow tractors and bulldozers to be used; it needed manual
labour. Of that there was plenty because
these were the years of the Great Depression, so Kaufmann had no problem
finding local farmers and tradesmen to work on the innovative build – at 35c an
hour! Horses were used to drag materials up the steep slopes.
Kaufmann’s
original budget was $50,000 but it eventually blew out to an extraordinary
$150,000. (That’s around $4.5 million in
today’s money, but if built now, it would cost far far more than $4.5 million.)
Never-the-less, Kaufmann spared no expense, even insisting that the furniture
and fittings for the servants’ quarters were the same quality as in the main
house.
To quote
one of the boards at Fallingwater’s visitor’s centre, the house ‘…is Wright’s
strongest expression of the richness and nuances of modern architecture. Like
his modernist contemporaries, Wright explored new materials, technologies and
architectural forms.’ It was recognised
by the Institute of American Architects as
’the best all time work of American architecture’.
The back
part of the house is firmly embedded on and around the cliff on which it is
built. But the front house has no
support at all, being cantilevered over the stream which runs entirely under
the front half of the house.
With its
strong horizontal lines and use of concrete, glass and steel, I have long known
Fallingwater as an iconic example of Modernist architecture. However it has taken this visit for me to
realise just how much it is a wonderful example also of organic
architecture. In fact, our tour guide
made no mention of ‘Modernist’ at all but often mentioned ‘organic
architecture’.
So now to
the house itself. It is built entirely
from rendered concrete, steel, glass and slate quarried from Bear Run. Most of
the furniture was built-in and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Visiting it
today, you see it exactly as it was when given to the Trust by Edgar Kaufmann
jnr in 1963. He apparently forsook
architecture, but his male partner was the designer of the impressive Visitor
Centre. In giving the property to the trust, no doubt Kaufmann jnr. anticipated
the immense amount of finance that would be needed for maintenance.
The only
room in the entire house to have window furnishings of any kind is the first
guest bedroom, which has a timber venetian – the original still hanging in the
window. This is because the next door
master bedroom has access onto a wide balcony.
The blind is there to give the guests privacy.
Leaving the
main house and ascending a covered walkway, one arrives at the guest
suite. This is where the swimming pool
is to be found. It is fed by natural
spring water and was drained into the small river around every sixteen days
through a hole in the bottom.
Further up
is the carport that used to accommodate up to eight cars. This was apparently the invention of the
carport. Wright convinced Kaufmann not to have a garage because that would only
encourage clutter. The carport has now been converted into a small theatre for
the viewing of a film by visitors to the property. Immediately above the carport is the servants’ quarters, some considerable
distance from the main house.
The colours
and fittings are the same throughout the house. The walls and ceilings are of
rendered concrete, with all the walls being a pleasant light mustard
colour. Wright’s favourite colour,
Cherokee red, features in various trimmings.
One example is the huge round hanging pot that the Kaufmanns would
swivel over the open fire in the lounge room. The pot contained eighteen
gallons of mulled wine and they poured it from a spout at the bottom.
All of the
furniture is timber, most of it, as mentioned previously, designed by Frank
Lloyd Wright. The particular timber is blackwood cherry, a beautiful dark
timber. The cabinetry of the in-built
wardrobes are the new innovation of the day in cabinetry, veneer. Wright
specifically had the grain of the timber running horizontally on the wardrobe
doors to accentuate the low, horizontal lines of the house. In designing the furniture, he also
incorporated the natural surfaces wherever he could. Colourful accents are
provided by the rugs, the bed coverings, some upholstery and the artwork.
The home is
a veritable museum of original pieces of artwork and accessories. In one study alone I encountered a Picasso on
the wall and on the desk a most beautiful Tiffany lamp and an Alessi vase – all
originals of course!
Slate forms
every floor surface, with the only exception being the bathrooms, where cork
features for both floor and wall finishes.
One of the
features of the living area is the ‘hutch’, a pair of glass doors opening to a
glassed-in stairway that leads below the house.
The bottom step is just above the water line and it is said that Mrs
Kauffmann was fond of fly fishing from that step.
You may
remember that Wright was planning on retiring when he took on this
project. In fact, after Fallingwater he
took on another one hundred buildings, including New York’s famous Guggenheim
Museum.
Although we were free to wander the grounds at
will, we had to take it in turns to visit the house itself because children
under six are strictly not allowed.
Roger and Robyn went first while I walked the children around the
grounds. Pushing the stroller was no
mean feat on the gravel paths and up the many steps. Fortunately, independent Miss Isabelle
insisted on walking most of the way. By
the end of the day she was exhausted!