Fallingwater

The Kaufmann family asked Frank Lloyd Wright for a weekend house with a view of the waterfall on their land, and he built it on top of the waterfall instead, cantilevering terraces of reinforced concrete straight out over the stream so that the water is heard everywhere in the house and never quite seen from inside. It is among the most famous houses of the twentieth century and part of a UNESCO listing covering eight Wright buildings. The interior is all low ceilings, built-in furniture, boulders left in place breaking through the living-room floor, and a hatch with a stair down to the water. It is small, dark in places, and structurally so ambitious that the cantilevers had to be strengthened decades later.

History

By 1916 Edgar Kaufmann Sr., owner of a Pittsburgh department store, had set up a summer retreat for his staff at Bear Run, and when they stopped using it the Kaufmanns bought the site in July 1933; their son Edgar Jr., an apprentice at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin, introduced them to Wright, who was hired in late 1934 at 67, having designed only two buildings in six years. Wright visited Bear Run in December 1934, had every boulder and tree mapped, and placed the house over the waterfall; cracked concrete and sagging terraces troubled the construction, but the family began using the house in 1937 and had Wright add a guest wing. Since 1963 the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has run it as a museum with 5,000 acres of land around it (Wikipedia, Fallingwater).

What to look for

• The cantilevered terraces - the concrete trays projecting over the falls.
• The living room - boulders left in place through the floor and the stair to the stream.
• The classic view - the house from the viewpoint downstream, the photograph everyone knows.
• The woodland setting - the Laurel Highlands forest around the house.

When to go

April to November for the full tour season, with October colour the most spectacular and the busiest; winter tours run on a reduced schedule and the bare trees reveal the structure. Tours are timed and sell out weeks ahead in autumn, so book early.

Before you go

Tickets must be booked in advance and the standard tour is a fixed hour on a set route with a group, with photography inside restricted on most tour types. The house is far smaller than photographs suggest and quite dark. It is ninety minutes from Pittsburgh, and pairing it with Wright's nearby Kentuck Knob makes the drive worthwhile.

Nearby

Kentuck Knob, another Wright house, is close; Ohiopyle State Park is next door.