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[Fallingwater from southwest lookout]
View 2 through the forest 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. The supports that are (barely) visible under the terrace are a temporary measure while repairs are made.
Original photo, taken by the webmaster.
Click here or on photo for much larger (1536x1024 pixel, 550k) version.

Wright used only a few elements throughout the house, so that a sense of familiarity soon reassures whoever visits or inhabits it. However, Wright was never content with consistency; he structured the whole western tower block using mutations of his themes. Supported on three sides by stone walls, the floor slabs of this portion of the house do not have parapets. On the contrary they are beveled to meet, but not pierce, the glazing membrane that here - and only here at Fallingwater - becomes a vertical curtain three stories high. This sheer expanse of glass and steel is not treated as a flat facade, but is stepped forward in accord with the angled character of the house. Extending westward from this block is a cantilevered terrace not level with the floor slabs to the east, making clear that the tower interrupts the continuity of the reinforced slab system. The special treatment of the west end of the house is balanced to the east by another mutation: the concrete slabs repeatedly slotted to form the trellis areas over the driveway and the living room.

- Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., Fallingwater: A Frank Lloyd Wright Country House, p. 110.



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