Fallingwater
We enter darkly wooded grounds ... For a minute or so we descend through a thicket of rhododendron via a stately wooden ramp into the perfect quiet of a lush glen. Alongside the ramp is the exposed sandstone wall of the ravine ... On the valley floor we encounter a forest of such virginal purity that we walk through it as though enchanted. Now the sound of Bear Run reaches us with almost oceanic intensity. A clearing in the woods reveals the stream, a concrete bridge, and a corner of Fallingwater.
... Our first glimpse of the house brings us to a stop, and total silence.
~ Franklin Toker, Fallingwater Rising
Description:
The 1937 home, Fallingwater, known for its balconies hanging over a waterfall, is anchored to a foundation made partially of concrete bolsters and partially of boulders native to the site. Sitting three stories tall, with each floor owning a private balcony supported by steel reinforced concrete cantilevers, Fallingwater's image mimics that of the waterfall beneath it. Balancing industrial and natural materials, Fallingwater is comprised of glass, locally quarried stone, painted concrete, and steel. Added in 1939, a single story guest home squats on top a hill further away from the stream, and is elegantly connected to the main building via covered walkway. Both the Fallingwater and its guest home were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Commissioner Background:
E. J. Kaufmann, the commissioner of Fallingwater, was a Jewish German-American art-enthusiast, businessman, and owner of Kaufmann's Department Store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Kaufmann, a prominent Pittsburgh figurehead (despite his religion), bought a large plot of forest land named Bear Run near Mill Run, Pittsburgh in which he and his family (consisting of his wife/cousin Lilane, and his son Edgar Jr.) camped and picnicked during summer days. Later, Kaufmann turned Bear Run into a campsite where the employees from his store could vacation at with their families. After the depression hit and the transportation aids were focused elsewhere, the camp lost popularity, and Kaufmann soon closed it down with ideas of turning it into a rural get-away in which he could escape 'city life' and some of the racial prejudices that limited the family's social life. And thus, the basic concept of Fallingwater was born.
The Famous Beginning of Fallingwater:
After learning about the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and his son's brief study under Wright at the Taliesin Fellowship, Kaufmann chose the architect to erect the Bear Run retreat on December 18, 1934. Wright, who was in a commission slump at the time, gladly took the original idea of a luxurious house by a water fall and re-imagined it into the architectural wonder that perches on the rocky water-bed today.
Though Wright was said to have spontaneously imagined and transposed the idea of Fallingwater onto paper two hours before Kaufmann arrived at Taliesin from Chicago, the story is just a tall tale; multiple erasures on the original designs show drastic changes, such as one less supporting bolster to keep the house structurally sound, as well as the balconies being extended dramatically over the edges of the building's walls. While the structural designs were revised and edited for months afterwards, the presentation designs were finished on September 22, 1935.
Conflicts in Raising Fallingwater:
Though not all designs were finished by June 1936, Kaufmann was eager to start construction, so he hired employees and worksmen to quarry stone for the floors and start laying the bolsters for the foundations. Among beginning construction without Wright's consent, Kaufmann hired a Pittsburgh-based engineering firm to analyze the plans and reevaluate both the bolsters and the cantilevers. The results that came back stated that Fallingwater's structure was unsafe and that the cantilevers had a dangerously low amount of supportive structure in order to maintain the building's daringly expanded floor plan. Concisely, Kaufmann added more steel to the cantilevers, without consulting Wright at Taliesin.
Restoration:
Though the residence was an amazing architectural statement, there were some structural issues that urgently required restoration work in order to maintain its standing over the waterfall. In 2001 restoration work began after a student working on a master's thesis decided to delve into Fallingwater's structure. The further he dived, the more the numbers and calculations suggested that Fallingwater's cantilevers had failed and that the structure was at risk of collapsing. Through the use of state-of-the-art resonance imaging technology, experts in structural restoration were able to confirm that the cantilevers breached a tension level of ninety-five percent.
The restoration work began with placing temporary scaffolding and structural support underneath Fallingwater's balconies in order to relieve the tension on the tension so a newly invented post-tensioning technique could be integrated into the building's cantilever system and re-stabilize Fallingwater's structure. Restoration was completed in 2002, and today, Fallingwater is safe and structurally sound.
Furniture:
After Fallingwater finished construction in 1937, E. J. and Lilane Kaufman order over 100 custom Frank Lloyd Wright furniture designs, which were built and installed over the course of the next few years. Though he designed furniture pieces for many of his commissions, Fallingwater is home to the largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright imagined furniture to date, partially due to preservation acts, and partially due to the fact that half of Fallingwater's furniture is “client-proof” (built in).
All Information From:
- Toker, Franklin. “Fallingwater Rising: Frank Lloyd Wright, E.J. Kaufmann, and America's Most Extraordinary House.” New York: A.A. Knopf, 2003. Print.
