Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater is the often cited as the preeminent example of uniquely American residential architecture.

I've visited the property several times and the photos included here were taken by me on a Canon SureShot digital camera.

Fallingwater

Fallingwater is located in the Laurel Highlands of Western Pennsylvania, deep in a forest. It was built for the Kaufman family, wealthy owners of a Pittsburgh department store chain. The Kaufman’s had a summer camp for their employees to use and eventually decided to build a summer home for themselves on the property. They were fans of modern architecture and asked Frank Lloyd Wright to design and build the home.

Instead of building the home up on the hill overlooking Bear Creek, Wright designed the home to sit directly over the creek.

Source: http://www.fallingwater.org

He used huge cantilevered concrete slabs to hang parts of the structure over the creek without support beams. While I couldn't take pictures inside, when you visit, you will see in the family room a boulder in the center of the room giving proof to how he built the home directly into the rocks. He had specially designed windows where the window glass meets in the corner of the room without any framing so as to minimize any distraction to the scenery outside. It is truly an organic piece of architecture that blends naturally into the landscape.

In this photo, you can see how he built steps down from the house directly into the creek to cool yourself during the heat of the summer.

Building a home over a creek does carry some risks. The statue in the picture below was knocked off the wall by the rising creek during a flood in early July of this year. Luckily it was attached to a chain that was added after a previous flood of the creek.

Kentuck Knob

In addition to building homes for the rich, Frank Lloyd Wright also had a vision of how the working class should live. He designed and built a series of residences that he called Usonian homes. Usonia was a term he used instead of “American” to describe homes for the U.S. citizen. He ultimately built sixty of these Usonian homes around the country, but one Usonian home called Kentucky Knob, is just seven miles south of Fallingwater and should be included in any visit to see Fallingwater.

The differences and the similarities between the two homes are remarkable. Wright's aesthetic of clean lines and thoughtful details are evident in both homes. Kentuck Knob is built right into the hillside or “knob”. The term carport was coined by Wright and many of his Usonian homes, including Kentuck Knob, use his cantilevered roof to create a covered spot to park a car.

Somewhat unique for even Wright's Usonian homes is the hexagonal shape of the house and Wright’s original plans did not include any 90 degree angles in the entire house. Wright remotely directed a local builder on the construction of the house. I was told the local builder thought Mr. Wright a bit eccentric in his design and decided to sneak one 90 degree angle into the shower of one of the bathrooms.

If you are visiting Pittsburgh or happen to be driving through Western Pennsylvania, making a stop to see these two homes is well worth any delay in your schedule. We stayed at one of the many bed and breakfast inns nearby to the homes.