Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright: Kaufmann house above the waterfall

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

View at the main (living room) level, from south-southeast.

The second-floor terrace in the foreground leads out from the master bedroom. Terraces flank the living room on the main level (first floor), and the stream (Bear Run) runs under them, flowing from east to west (right to left). The site chosen by Wright was lower in the canyon than was expected (from the standpoint of maximizing the view available), in keeping with the theme of a harmonious and natural relationship to the setting.

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

More years passed until I began to consider how unconventional a country house Fallingwater really is. A regular country house on ample acres would have a standard program in which outbuildings edge the approach, then a gateway announces the private domain (with implications of guards and challenges, a checkpoint) and in due course one reaches the entrance front, emphatically centered on the main door. On one hand lie hospitable facilities, on the other, work areas of all sorts. Unseen but promised is a garden front, more open and relaxed than the approach facade. Wright sidestepped this whole program - or did he?

- Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., Fallingwater: A Frank Lloyd Wright Country House, pp. 172-3.

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Updated 12/1/01