Click for LARGE photo
[Fallingwater from southwest lookout, 1]
View 2 from the lookout above the stream (Bear Run), from southwest. Frank Lloyd Wright planned the house with this view in mind.
In this famous view of Fallingwater from downstream, two waterfalls are clearly visible. The upper waterfall seems to come straight out from under the house, but in actuality, the stream flows from right to left in the photo, but breaks at an angle toward the camera (away from the house) at the upper waterfall. The cantilevered levels and terraces as well as the stone walls echo the ledges below, giving an impression of the house being an organic part of the rock formations and that the house harmonizes with its natural setting. In the photo, visitors can be seen on the terraces, mostly on the second floor terrace above the living room and the southwest terrace on the main floor that leads out from the living room.
      If you haven't already seen it, be sure to have a look at the photo of Fallingwater in autumn at dusk; the golden hues of the interior lighting harmonize with the early autumn colors of the leaves to create a stunning picture.
Click here or on photo for much larger (960x1280 pixel, 308k) version.

...underneath the effects of great art - however masterly and ingenious - there lies a consistency of the whole. To understand this quality one must consider those principles that guided the artist. In Wright's statements his principles are denoted by words embodying deep intuitions: organic, democratic, plasticity, continuity. During careful study of his texts and his architecture, I have come to believe that these terms present different aspects of one central insight. To Wright, architecture was a great inclusive agency through which humankind adapted the environment to human needs and, reciprocally, attuned human life to its cosmos; amid continual changes architecture could keep human life more natural and nature more humane. This idea pervades Fallingwater in accord with the aims of both architect and client, and gives it not only basic meaning but also powerful subliminal appeal.

- Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., Fallingwater: A Frank Lloyd Wright Country House, p. 31.



[LAST]        [NEXT]

Go to Fallingwater Photographs: Thumbnails Preview page.

Go to a descriptive list (table of contents including medium and large photos).