Visit to Fallingwater

My buddy Vishal and I made a recent trip to Fallingwater in western Pennsylvania. It was inspiring. Long an item on my bucket list, the timing finally worked out this year to visit this architectural masterpiece.

Brief background

Fallingwater was architected by Frank Lloyd Wright for Edgar Kaufman, a wealthy Pittsburgh department store owner, and his wife and one son in the mid 1930s. Depression-era 1930s, for context. It was a weekend house situated in a section of forest that included a waterfall. During the design discussions, Kaufman had been expecting a house with a view of it. Wright’s design, however, placed the house on the waterfall itself.

The tour

We visited Fallingwater under falling water, a light drizzle that faded away during the tour. Check-in was at the visitor center, suitably architected to meet all the tourist needs - a centrally staffed information window surrounded by a gift shop, cafe, restrooms, and a gallery. Our tour started from here with about eight in our group, and umbrellas were provided.

After a short ten minute walk, we reached the famous terraced house. The actual waterfall was hard to see at this point, but you could see and hear the gushing water below. The kitchen was the first stop, which had some interesting vintage appliances. Then we came to the living room, the very heart and lungs of the structure; it consisted of an open floor design with wide open views, some nice furniture, and a few particularly unique features, including a vent to allow in some of the moisture from the flowing water.

Upstairs were the bedrooms, furnished with the expected bed, lamp, and desk, as well as books and high art. The rooms tended to the cosier side, with somewhat low ceilings. They each had spacious terraces, with somewhat better views of the waterfall.

From the back of the house, a walkway under an interesting folded concrete roof led to a separate building for the guest bedroom. Finally, the tour ended in another structure currently used as offices.

Last stops

They did ask for donations, which included various membership options. Fallingwater is expensive to maintain and it was revealed that it does need a crucial repair soon. It’s a special place, and it’s great to see the efforts made by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in maintaining it. I don’t remember the tour guide’s name, but he was thorough, engaging, and knew about every square inch of the place (one should hope that doesn’t help to identify him). We felt good about giving a little extra.

Before we headed back to the visitor center, we made a short detour to a vantage point to get the iconic house and waterfall shot. Definitely a must! We wrapped up our visit at the gift shop, stocked with all the Wright stuff - books on Wright but also general art and architecture subjects (include modernist books), and plenty of other items as well.

Lessons

A space carved out of natural local materials, cantilever design, clear geometries of a house marking its place - it is, after all built over a waterfall - yet respecting its natural surroundings, these are some of the details of Fallingwater that struck me. But on a deeper level, I think Meryle Secrest’s analysis captures it best in her excellent biography of Wright:

Man in tune with the primal forces of nature, man partaking in the great creative impulse - these are two of the lessons one can perhaps draw from a work that was, almost from the first, recognized as a masterpiece. Fallingwater was a stunning synthesis of all Wright thought and believed and spectacular proof that, at the age of sixty-eight, when most men are ready to retire, Wright was launching himself on the final great phase of his astonishing career

A few tips

• Please pay a visit, if you can, to the nearby Flight 93 National memorial
• If you have the time, and perhaps are coming from or going to the Philly side, the Midtown Scholar bookstore in Harrisburg is great for bookworms, with a large selection of used art books.
• Vishal and I also enjoyed the Acme Car museum and Pizza shop.
  • We were looking for pizza, which turned out to be fine, but in an adjacent room there was a large collection of vintage cars along with period items.
  • The host was friendly and knowledgeable. It was wonderful seeing his passion and recognition for preserving not just these cars but a sense of the time period, of an America that had a certain style.
• Western PA is just beautiful with its rolling lush green hills