Fallingwater House

Fallingwater, also known as the Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. Residence, is a house on Bear Run at Rural Route 1 in Mill Run, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains. The house was designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935.

Edgar Kaufmann Sr. was a successful Pittsburgh businessman. His son, Edgar Jr., studied architecture under Wright briefly. The Kaufmanns owned some property outside Pittsburgh with a waterfall and some cabins. When the cabins at their camp had deteriorated to the point that something had to be rebuilt, Mr. Kaufman contacted Wright.

Initially, the Kaufmanns assumed that Wright would design a house that would overlook the waterfall. Wright asked for a survey of the area around the waterfall, including all of the boulders and trees. They were unprepared to hear Wright's suggestion to build a house positioned over a waterfall. Fallingwater was the family's weekend home from 1937 to 1963.

Fallingwater (The Kaufmann House) is now a museum. Since 1964, when it opened to the public, two million have visited the house.

Wright adapted the vocabulary of International Modernism—a usually stark and ordered variety used in public buildings— for this organically designed private residence intended to be a nature retreat. The house is well-known for its connection to the site: it is built on top of an active waterfall which flows beneath the house. The fireplace hearth in the living room is composed of boulders found on the site and upon which the house was built. Wright had initially intended that the boulders would be cut flush with the living room floor, but they were left as they were, protruding from the rest of the floor. The stone floors are waxed, while the hearth is left plain, giving the impression of dry rocks protruding from a stream.

The active stream, immediate surroundings and cantilevered design of the house are meant to be in unison, in line with Wright's interest in making buildings that were more "organic" and which thus seemed to be more engaged with their surroundings. The design incorporates broad expanses of windows and the balconies are off main rooms giving a sense of the closeness of the surroundings. There is also an interior staircase down from the living room allowing direct access to the stream beneath the house.

On the hillside above the main house is a garage, servants' quarters, and a guest bedroom. This attached outbuilding was built using the same quality of materials and attention to detail as the main house. There are many ways into and out of the house.

Fallingwater's structural system includes a series of bold reinforced concrete cantilevered balconies. However, the house had problems from the beginning. Pronounced sags were noticed immediately with both of the prominent balconies — the living room and the second floor.

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy is performing an intensive program to preserve and restore Fallingwater. The structural work was complete in 2002. This involved an intensive study of the original design documents, observing and modeling the structure's behaviour, then developing and implementing a repair plan.

While Wright had been ruminating on the architectural design for months (Tokfer 2003), results of the study indicated that the original structural design and plan preparation had been rushed and the cantilevers had significantly inadequate reinforcement. As originally designed the cantilevers would not have held their own weight. (Feldman 2005)

The contractor, also an engineer, produced independent computations and argued for increasing the reinforcement. Wright rebuffed the contractor and Kaufmann took Wright's advice. Wright's team did not update their design. Nevertheless, the contractor quietly doubled the amount of reinforcement in these. (Feldman 2005) Even this was not enough, but likely prevented the structure's collapse.

An item that was overlooked by both designers was that the second-floor (master bedroom) cantilever was actually being supported by the living-room cantilever through the heavy steel mullions of that room. (Feldman 2005)

The repair scheme involved temporarily supporting the structure; careful, selective, removal of the floor; post-tensioning the cantilevers underneath the floor; then restoring the finished floor. (Feldman 2005)

Given the humid environment directly over running water, the house also had mold problems. The senior Mr. Kaufmann called Fallingwater "a seven-bucket building" for its leaks, and nicknamed it "Rising Mildew". (Brand 1995)

Despite these problems, Fallingwater is widely considered a master's masterpiece.

Wikipedia information about Fallingwater
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