Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater

This week I took a little trip to Pittsburgh, and on the way back towards Philadelphia decided to stop and spend the afternoon at Fallingwater, a house designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The house was opened to the public in 1964 with its furnishings and setting intact. The architecture and the interior design (including the art) are both reasons to visit in and of themselves. 

The downhill path to the house

The peace sign tree (or at least I think so).

Fallingwater was designed and built for the Kaufmann family as a vacation home in the 1930s. The Kaufmanns had envisioned a rustic getaway with a view of the waterfall on Bear Run creek, and thus were understandably surprised when Frank Lloyd Wright revealed plans to build the house on top of the waterfall. He wanted the infrastructure to be completely integrated with nature. 

The original budget for the main house: $20-30k; final bill for the main and guest houses: $155k. Can you imagine? That's the equivalent of several million dollars today - and during the Great Depression, no less! 

The Kaufmann family decorated their weekend home with art by Pablo Picasso and Diego Rivera, wildlife engravings by John J. Audubon, a Tiffany lamp, three-legged peasant chairs from France, a Madonna and Child sculpture from 1420, a statue of a Hindu goddess from the 8th century, and Japanese woodblock prints by Ando Hiroshige that were a gift from Frank Lloyd Wright himself. 

Escape to nature and enjoy a sense of seclusion and serenity at Fallingwater.