Frank Lloyd Wright
‚Fallingwater‘

Key Pieces series

Our Key Piece of the week is the architectural classic Fallingwater house by Frank Lloyd Wright. In ten points we present you this milestone building.

1. It was created in 1935 by Frank Lloyd Wright and realized in between 1936 and 1939 near to Pittsburgh.
2. It was designed for Edgar J. Kaufmann – owner of Kaufmann’s department store – as the family’s weekend home.
3. The specificity of the house is that it is partially built on a waterfall on the Bear Run river.
4. Although the original estimated cost for building Fallingwater was US$35,000 it ended up reaching the final price of $155,000. The equivalent of $2,6 million in 2015.
5. Fallingwater is the best explanatory example of Wright’s organic philosophy and passion for Japanese architecture.
6. The house was habited by the Kaufmann from 1937 to 1963. In 1963, Kaufmann Jr. donated the property to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. It is since then open to the public as a museum.
7. Because of the humid environment, the house was repaired permanently in 2002.
8. It was cited as one of the ‘Twenty-Eight Places to Visit Before You Die‘ by the Smithsonian magazine.
9. It inspired the movie North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock.
10. Fallingwater appears in many popular culture references such as in Bugs Bunny movies and is featured as a landmark in the Lego product range.