Ever heard of a landmark called Falling Waters? Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece it is, what put him on the cover of TIME magazine, what people from all around the world come to visit.
I had the distinct pleasure of visiting this beautiful masterpiece last month. The road trip was a little over 6 hours, so a friend and I decided to stop in good old Ohio, Amish country on the way. We found a cheese castle, pie, and multiple bakeries.
The next morning, we got up and went to Falling Waters. Let me tell you, you really have to want to come here, because this place is out in the middle of nowhere (and you understand when you get there). Tortuous turns through beautiful autumn leaves made the trip all the more memorable.
Wright designed the house in 1935 in southwestern Pennsylvania for a wealthy department store owner by the name of Kaufmann. The family came to this neck of the woods multiple times for picnics and wanted to build a house that looked on toward the falls. Wright had a vision of his own.
He built the house on the falls, quite literally. When looking at the house, it appears as though the water is flowing through the house, and it actually does, kind of. The house has what looks like pylons that stabilize the house, along with support from the hillside that the house is attached to.
Hoping to buy a place of my own sometime soon, I hope to ascribe to Wright’s advice: “My prescription for a modern house: first pick a good site. Pick that one at the most difficult site – pick a site no one wants – but pick one that has features making for character: trees, individuality, a fault of some kind in the realtor mind.”
That would be something special.
