Fallingwater Report

Fallingwater

November 28, 2011

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I hereby certify that the contents contained within are my original work and have in no way been influenced by outside works other than my own personal research.

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Abstract

Fallingwater is the name of an extraordinary house built in the late 1930s by one of America’s most famous architects, Frank Lloyd Wright. The construction of this fascinating landmark defied many conventions like most of Wright’s works, but this one was especially unique because it is built over a waterfall. This residential project was devoted to accentuating art in nature to provide the ultimate vacation-home experience, and has been preserved by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy since 1963.

Fallingwater

When discussing famous American architects, it becomes difficult to avoid the name Frank Lloyd Wright. Similarly, when discussing Mr. Wright’s most famous works, it becomes a challenge to avoid mentioning some of his most fascinating buildings like Fallingwater, the Pew House, Grady Gammage auditorium, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and his distinct prairie house designs. Fallingwater, sometimes called Wright’s masterpiece, became a modern marvel instantly due to its inventive use of cantilevering (Fallingwater website). This building also marks one of Wright’s “most important domestic architectural commissions” (Hanks 145) and is admired by over 140,000 visitors annually (Weiss, Jerome, and Gottlieb 44).

Location

Fallingwater was designed and built in the late 1930s by one of the world’s most famous architects, Frank Lloyd Wright (Fallingwater website). Wright designed this house in 1935 and had it built between 1936 and 1939 as a weekend residence (Weiss, Jerome, and Gottlieb 44). This vacation home stands over the waterfalls of Bear Run in western Pennsylvania (Pfeiffer 41). As Bruce Pfeifer writes, Wright designed the house for the department store owner Edgar Kaufmann...