Architects may come and
Architects may go and
Never change your point of view
When I run dry
I stop awhile and think of you
Architects may come and
Architects may go and
Never change your point of view – Simon & Garfunkel
Frank Lloyd Wright is considered the greatest American architect of all time even though he never graduated from college or high school. We are traveling up to Pennsylvania to view his most famous house, Fallingwater. It is about 43 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Douglas thought we were never going to get there. We were coming from Virginia and for some reason Apple Maps thought we needed to take the backwoods of West Virginia to get there. It was really not the most scenic part of our drive.
The house was designed for Edgar and Liliane Kaufmann who owned Kaufmann’s Dept stores in Pittsburgh, which later became Macy’s. When they moved in, they found 50 leaks in the house! The Kaufmann’s nicknamed Fallingwater “Rising Mildew”.
The cantilevered house is suspended over a 30 ft waterfall in the middle of a forest. It was built in 1937 and opened as a museum in 1963. The original budget for Fallingwaters was 35k and the project cost $ 155k ! That amount now translates to over $2.5 million. In today’s labor markets, the price would be much more than that.
“One of the 12 landmarks that will change the way you see the world.” – Travel + Leisure Magazine
This house is brilliant! The design is both elegant and organic and feels like it is one with nature.
They do not allow photos inside the house & guest house so this is a pic from the web showing the built in furniture Wright designed for the house. Another highlight of the visit was when Douglas wandered off at least 30 feet and the 20-something guide yelled a warning at him. “Such a rebel, he is…in his own mind”
As soon as we got to our campground a few miles away, it started to rain, and this continued for the next 48 hours. We are staying at Ohiopyle State Park Kentuck Campground in the southern part of Laurel Ridge, PA. The word Ohiopyle is a native American word which means white-frothy water. The main attraction here is the rushing waters of the Youghiogheny [yawki-gay-nee] River Gorge. The “Youghiogheny” [yawk] provides some of the best whitewater rafting & boating in the eastern United States. Since it was raining, we decided to bicycle part of the Great Allegheny Passage in the park. The Great Allegheny Passage connects Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Cumberland, Maryland. There is only 1 thing worse than being cold- and that is being cold & wet!
Best meal in Ohioplye town is at Falls Market General Store- great Pittsburgh style salads. Douglas really liked a pizza joint that was around the corner on one of the side streets.
Natural waterslides are another popular attraction in the park. The rain meant the falls were running like mini rapids and looked pretty dangerous.
Close to our campground was a short walk to Cucumber Falls.
We met a lady picking mushrooms who pointed out that the ones on the right are poisonous but she was collecting the ones on the left in the pink bag which are chanterelle mushrooms and cost over $26 a lb.
We had no idea our campground was close to another Frank Lloyd Wright house- the Kentuck Knob. This house is now privately owned but it was originally built for a friend of the Kaufmann’s who owned a local dairy farm and ice cream shop. Designed on a hexagonal module, Kentuck Knob is a small, one story Usonian house. Usonian, meaning affordable for the average American, was a signature design of Frank Lloyd Wright.
No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together each the happier for the other.
-Frank Lloyd Wright
Some interesting facts about Frank Lloyd Wright:
- He was fiscally irresponsible. He had a passion for fast cars and fancy suits and was always on the brink of financial disaster. His projects also ran over budget. He designed over 1114 projects but only half of these were built.
- He spent 6 years working in Japan on the Imperial Hotel Tokyo.
- Wright’s son invented Lincoln Logs, which were modeled after the interlocking timbers his Dad designed for the Imperial Hotel.
- The Guggenheim museum was his first building in NYC and he worked on it for 16 years until his death.
- Seven people died in 1914 including apprentices, students, his partner Mamah Cheney and Wright’s two children as a result of a fire in his home, Taliesin, which was intentionally started by their butler. Any one who managed to escape the first was hacked to death by the butler.
- He refused to design attics, basements, and closed garages because he said they were wasted spaces that attracted junk.
- Wright coined the term “ organic architecture’ The term refers to a style that attempts to find the perfect balance between man, nature and design.
- He designed the Mile High Illinois, which would have been the World’s Tallest Building.
- Oak Park, Illinois is home to the largest collection of Wright works, with 25 houses and buildings constructed between 1889 and 1913.
- He had three wives and eight children.
