- This article is about the house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. For the house designed by Richard Neutra, see Kaufmann Desert House.
Fallingwater, also known as the Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. Residence, is a house designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, and is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The house was built partly over a waterfall in Bear Run at Rural Route 1 in the Mill Run section of Stewart Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains. For other uses of terms redirecting here, see US (disambiguation), USA (disambiguation), and United States (disambiguation) Motto In God We Trust(since 1956) (From Many, One; Latin, traditional) Anthem The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City National language English (de facto)1 Demonym American...
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Stewart Township is a township in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States. ...
This article is about the U.S. State. ...
City nickname: The Steel City Location in the state of Pennsylvania Founded 1758 Mayor Tom Murphy (Dem) Area - Total - Water 151. ...
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was one of the worlds most prominent and influential architects. ...
A typical plaque showing entry on the National Register of Historic Places. ...
The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) is an organization dedicated to the conservation of ecosystems in western Pennsylvania. ...
Kaufmann House, Palm Springs, California. ...
Kaufmann House, Palm Springs, CA The Kaufmann House, or Kaufmann Desert House, in Palm Springs, California, was designed by Richard Neutra in 1946. ...
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Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was one of the worlds most prominent and influential architects. ...
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Pittsburgh redirects here. ...
The Pittsburgh Metro Area is the U.S. Census defined seven county region surrounding the city of Pittsburgh in southwestern Pennsylvania, United States of America. ...
The Bear Run is a run in a stream in southwestern Pennsylvania in the Appalachians. ...
Stewart Township is a township located in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. ...
Fayette County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. ...
The Laurel Highlands, in Southwestern Pennsylvania in the USA, encompasses Fayette County, Somerset County and Westmoreland County. ...
The Allegheny Mountain Range (also spelled Alleghany and Allegany) -- informally, the Alleghenies -- is part of the Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States. ...
Fallingwater was featured in Bob Vila's A&E Network production, Guide to Historic Homes of America.[1] Robert J. Bob Vila (born June 20, 1946) is an American home improvement television show host known for This Old House (1979–1989), Bob Vilas Home Again (1990–2005) and Bob Vila (2005–2007). ...
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History
Edgar Kaufmann Sr. was a successful Pittsburgh businessman and founder of Kaufmann's Department Store. His son, Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., studied architecture under Wright briefly. The Kaufmanns owned some property outside Pittsburgh with a waterfall and some cabins. When the cabins at their camp had deteriorated to the point that something had to be rebuilt, Mr. Kaufmann contacted Wright. Edgar J. Kaufmann, (1885-1955), was a prominent businessman and a philanthropist who owned the best-known department store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the twentieth century. ...
Pittsburgh redirects here. ...
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This article is about building architecture. ...
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For other uses, see Log cabin (disambiguation). ...
Initially, the Kaufmanns assumed the idea of Wright designing a house that would overlook the waterfall. Wright asked for a survey of the area around the waterfall, which was performed by Fayette Engineering Company of Uniontown, PA and included all of the boulders, trees and topography. They were unprepared to hear Wright's suggestion to build a house positioned over a waterfall.[2] At the time of its construction, the structure cost $155,000.[3] Surveyor at work with a leveling instrument. ...
Boulder In geology, a boulder is a rock with grain size of usually no less than 256 mm (10 inches) diameter. ...
The coniferous Coast Redwood, the tallest tree species on earth. ...
Fallingwater was the family's weekend home from 1937 to 1963. In 1963, Kaufmann, Jr. donated the property to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. In 1964 it was opened to the public as a museum and nearly four million people have visited the house since (as of July 2006). It currently hosts more than 120,000 visitors each year.[3] The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) is an organization dedicated to the conservation of ecosystems in western Pennsylvania. ...
Style
 Interior of Fallingwater depicting a sitting area in the living room Fallingwater stands as one of Wright's greatest masterpieces both for its dynamism and for its integration with the striking natural surroundings. The extent of Wright's genius in integrating every detail of this design can only be hinted at in photographs. This organically designed private residence was intended to be a nature retreat for its owners. The house is well-known for its connection to the site: it is built on top of an active waterfall which flows beneath the house. The fireplace hearth in the living room is composed of boulders found on the site and upon which the house was built — one set of boulders which was left in place protrudes slightly through the living room floor. Wright had initially intended that these boulders would be cut flush with the floor, but this had been one of the Kaufmann family's favorite sunning spots, so Mr. Kaufmann insisted that it be left as it was. The stone floors are waxed, while the hearth is left plain, giving the impression of dry rocks protruding from a stream. Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ...
Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so sympathetic and well integrated with its site that buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition. ...
Winter (fireplace), tacuinum sanitatis casanatensis (XIV century) A fireplace is an architectural element consisting of a space designed to contain a fire, generally for heating but sometimes also for cooking. ...
In common historic and modern usage, a hearth (Har-th) is a brick- or stone-lined fireplace or oven used for cooking and/or heating. ...
A hardwood floor (parquetry) is a popular feature in many houses. ...
Integration with the setting extends even to small details. For example, where glass meets stone walls, there is no metal frame; rather, the glass is caulked directly to the stone. There are stairways directly down to the water. And in the "bridge" that connects the main house to the guest and servant building, a natural boulder drips water inside, which is then directed back out. Bedrooms are small, some even with low ceilings, perhaps to encourage people outward toward the open social areas, decks, and outdoors. Caulking - Wikipedia /**/ @import /w/skins-1. ...
The active stream (which can be heard constantly throughout the house), immediate surroundings, and locally quarried stone walls and cantilevered terraces (resembling the nearby rock formations) are meant to be in harmony, in line with Wright's interest in making buildings that were more "organic" and which thus seemed to be more engaged with their surroundings. Although the waterfall can be heard throughout the house, it can't be seen without going outside. The design incorporates broad expanses of windows and the balconies are off main rooms giving a sense of the closeness of the surroundings. The experiential climax of visiting the house is an interior staircase leading down from the living room allowing direct access to the rushing stream beneath the house. A schematic image of two cantilevers. ...
Organic describes forms, methods and patterns found in living systems such as organisation of cells, to populations, communities, and ecosystems. ...
 Pathway leading to the entrance of Fallingwater. Wright's views of what would be the entry have been argued about; still, the door Wright considered the main door is tucked away in a corner and is rather small. Wright's idea of the grand facade for this house is from the perspective of all the famous pictures of the house, looking up from downstream, viewing the opposite corner from the main door. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution‎ (3,648 × 2,736 pixels, file size: 5. ...
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On the hillside above the main house is a four-car carport (though the Kaufmanns had requested a garage), servants' quarters, and a guest bedroom. This attached outbuilding was built one year later using the same quality of materials and attention to detail as the main house. Just uphill from it is a small swimming pool, continually fed by a natural water, which then overflows to the river below. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Structural problems Fallingwater's structural system includes a series of bold reinforced concrete cantilevered balconies. However, the house had problems from the beginning. Pronounced sags were noticed immediately with both of the prominent balconies - the living room and the second floor.[4] Download high resolution version (1024x733, 235 KB)Example of a cantilever in architecture This is the uncropped version from the web site. ...
Download high resolution version (1024x733, 235 KB)Example of a cantilever in architecture This is the uncropped version from the web site. ...
A schematic image of two cantilevers. ...
Taipei 101, the worlds tallest building as of 2004. ...
Reinforced concrete at Sainte Jeanne dArc Church (Nice, France): architect Jacques Dror, 1926–1933 Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete in some countries, is concrete in which reinforcement bars (rebars) or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen a material that would otherwise be brittle. ...
This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...
 The strong horizontal and vertical lines are a distinctive feature of Fallingwater. The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy conducted an intensive program to preserve and restore Fallingwater. The structural work was completed in 2002. This involved a detailed study of the original design documents, observing and modeling the structure's behavior, then developing and implementing a repair plan. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (512x768, 441 KB) [edit] Summary Eaves and artwork of Fallingwater. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (512x768, 441 KB) [edit] Summary Eaves and artwork of Fallingwater. ...
The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) is an organization dedicated to the conservation of ecosystems in western Pennsylvania. ...
While Wright had been ruminating on the architectural design for months (Toker 2003), results of the study indicated that the original structural design and plan preparation had been rushed and the cantilevers had significantly inadequate reinforcement. As originally designed the cantilevers would not have held their own weight.[5]
The contractor (Walter Hall) also an engineer, produced independent computations and argued for increasing the reinforcement. Wright rebuffed the contractor and Kaufmann took Wright's advice. Wright's team did not update their design. Nevertheless, the contractor quietly doubled the amount of reinforcement in these.[5] Even this was not enough, but likely prevented the structure's collapse.
The 2002 repair scheme involved temporarily supporting the structure; careful, selective, removal of the floor; post-tensioning the cantilevers underneath the floor; then restoring the finished floor.[5] This article or section should be merged with Prestressed concrete Post-tensioned concrete is the descriptive term for a method of reinforcing concrete by applying compression to poured concrete after the curing process (in situ). ...
Given the humid environment directly over running water, the house also had mold problems. The senior Mr. Kaufmann called Fallingwater "a seven-bucket building" for its leaks, and nicknamed it "Rising Mildew" (Brand 1995). Mildew is a grey, mold-like growth caused by one of two different types of micro-organisms. ...
References - ^ Bob Vila (1996). "Guide to Historic Homes of America." (html). A&E Network.
- ^ "[W]hy did the client say that he expected to look from his house toward the waterfall rather than dwell above it?" Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., Fallingwater: A Frank Lloyd Wright Country House, New York: Abbeville Press, p. 31. (ISBN 0-89659-662-1)
- ^ a b Plushnick-Masti, Ramit. "New Wright house in western Pa. completes trinity of work", Associated Press, 2007-09-27. Retrieved on 2007-10-09.
- ^ Silman, Robert and John Matteo. "Repair and Retrofit: Is Falling Water Falling Down?", Structure Magazine, 2001-07-01. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
- ^ a b c Feldman, Gerard C. (2005). "Fallingwater Is No Longer Falling". STRUCTURE magazine (September): pp. 46–50.
- Trapp, Frank (1987). Peter Blume. Rizzoli, New York.
- Hoffmann, Donald (1993). Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater: The House and Its History, 2nd, Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-27430-6.
- Brand, Stewart (1995). How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-013996-6.
- McCarter, Robert (2002). Fallingwater Aid (Architecture in Detail). Phaidon Press. ISBN 0-7148-4213-3.
- Toker, Franklin (2003). Fallingwater Rising : Frank Lloyd Wright, E. J. Kaufmann, and America's Most Extraordinary House. Knopf. ISBN 1-4000-4026-4.
Robert J. Bob Vila (born June 20, 1946) is an American home improvement television show host known for This Old House (1979–1989), Bob Vilas Home Again (1990–2005) and Bob Vila (2005–2007). ...
HTML, an initialism of Hypertext Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. ...
Biography is one of A&Es longest-running and most popular programs. ...
Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...
is the 282nd day of the year (283rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...
is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Stewart Brand speaking September 5, 2004 Stewart Brand (born December 14, 1938 in Rockford, Illinois) is an author, editor, and creator of The Whole Earth Catalog and CoEvolution Quarterly. ...
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