Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright: Kaufmann house above the waterfall

Fallingwater,
Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect:
Kaufmann house above the waterfall

Another view from the lookout above the stream (Bear Run), from southwest.
Frank Lloyd Wright planned the house with this view in mind.

The stream flows roughly parallel to (and partially under) the house, but breaks at an angle at the falls. The sound of the flowing water fills the house continually. The cantilevered levels symbolically resonate with the rock ledges below. Supports visible under the terrace are a temporary measure while repairs are made.

Original photo, taken by the webmaster.
Click here or on the photo for a smaller version.

After a time a consensus arose that Wright had created a masterwork that appealed not only to professionals but to the public generally. Fallingwater was not much like the earlier architecture that had made Wright famous; it was just as distant from the avant-garde styles of the 1930s, and surely unlike any popular "dream house." Yet now that Fallingwater has been tested by half-a-century of the widest exposure, one can say that it marks a high point in Wright's vast oeuvre, in American architecture, in the architecture of this century, and possibly in all architecture.

- Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., Fallingwater: A Frank Lloyd Wright Country House, p. 28.

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Go to Recommended Books about Fallingwater

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Updated 12/1/01