Day 13: Fallingwater

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.

As you will see from the photograph, the house has several levels.  The first is the living room/dining room, the second the main bedroom, the Kaufmann jnr’s bedroom, a guest bedroom and Kaufmann’s study. Each of the three bedrooms have an ensuite, very small and humble by our standards. The highest level of the main house contains Kaufamann jnr’s study and a guest suite.  Decorated in lovely shades of blue, this was my favourite room. Many of the rooms throughout the home have balconies to take in the views.

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!

Wright not only accommodated the natural surrounds – he incorporated them where he could.  My favourite example is a huge boulder that provides support for one of the rooms, then ‘invades’ the house, forming a hob in the living room and then a shelf in the kitchen above. Another example is how he slides the glass of the windows seamlessly into the slate of the exterior wall.

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.

The final features that I want to write about are the windows, which are, of course, steel framed as were most windows of the time.  In seven areas of the home, Wright designed the corner windows to have no supporting corner frame. When two adjacent corner windows are opened, the view from that corner is un-interrupted, giving full access to the sights and smells of the surrounding bushland.  To me, this seems a stroke of genius and an indication of Wright’s innovative use of materials.

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! 

Then it was my turn to tour the house, with Roger and Robyn taking the children for yet another walk around the grounds. We ended the day with a brief look in the inevitable gift