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Fallingwater

Fallingwater or Kaufmann Residence
Excellent
  • Prairie School/Wrightian
  • Identity of Building/Site
  • History of Building/Site

Fallingwater

Site overview

Fallingwater was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 to be a summer house for Pittsburg millionaire Edgar J. Kaufmann and his family. The house is divided in two structures, the three-story main house and the two-story guest wing, which are connected by a semi-circular stone walkway protected by a cantilevered canopy of reinforced concrete. The main house is situated above a twenty-foot drop waterfall, the largest Bear Run waterfall; and the guest wing is located on a hill, north of the main house. Its cantilevered design stretches out like branches of a tree and is covered in materials and colors inspired from surrounding wilderness. Its long and horizontal reinforced concrete slabs express horizontality of giant sandstone boulders underneath the structure, while the vertical sandstone wall intrusions mimic heights of surrounding trees and flow of the waterfall. The entire house is a fine harmony of modern geometry and curvaceousness of nature set within the tapestry of changing seasons.

Fallingwater

Site overview

Fallingwater was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 to be a summer house for Pittsburg millionaire Edgar J. Kaufmann and his family. The house is divided in two structures, the three-story main house and the two-story guest wing, which are connected by a semi-circular stone walkway protected by a cantilevered canopy of reinforced concrete. The main house is situated above a twenty-foot drop waterfall, the largest Bear Run waterfall; and the guest wing is located on a hill, north of the main house. Its cantilevered design stretches out like branches of a tree and is covered in materials and colors inspired from surrounding wilderness. Its long and horizontal reinforced concrete slabs express horizontality of giant sandstone boulders underneath the structure, while the vertical sandstone wall intrusions mimic heights of surrounding trees and flow of the waterfall. The entire house is a fine harmony of modern geometry and curvaceousness of nature set within the tapestry of changing seasons.

Primary classification

Residential (RES)

Designations

U.S. National Register of Historic Places, listed on July 23, 1974 | U.S. National Historic Landmark, designated on May 23, 1966 | Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission Historical Marker, designated on May 15, 1994

Author(s)

Mayank Patel | | 2/23/2012

How to Visit

Daily public tours (seasonal)

Location

1491 Mill Run Road
Mill Run, PA, 15464

Country

US
More visitation information

Case Study House No. 21

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Designer(s)

Frank Lloyd Wright

Architect

Nationality

American

William Wesley Peters

Architect

Related Sites

Commission

1935

Completion

1938

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