Fallingwater is more than work of art, it is a religious experience. I visited it three times (each time my visit to Pittsburgh and the area surrounding the house was to specifically see it) and every damn time I stood weeping leaving the tour.
If you ever visit Taliesin in Wisconsin (which has a pretty bland), you should also visit the nearby House on the Rock which is a fascinating and very weird collection of esoteric and kitschy items.
The contrast in attitudes and aesthetics between the two is incredibly stark, and it's very interesting to see the reactions of visitors to each location.
I remember rumors going around Phoenix of someone trying to demolish the David and Gladys Wright House in 2011. Someone got a great deal on it around that time, $1m. It sold with a 7-10x return a a few years later.
Viewed in isolation it is a bit underwhelming, but if you see it in landscape it has a charm. I think a copper roof on both structures would make it pop.
I'm sad that we're coming up towards 100 years on from Fallingwater being built, and yet the American preference for new houses of a similar price (after inflation) is the sort of awful stuff that shows up on mcmansionhell.com.
The instinct to preserve and honor Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, where I live, has basically frozen the place in amber, which isn't something Wright would have wanted, and also worked synergistically with exclusive zoning to keep the Village ultra-expensive (it directly abuts the Austin neighborhood in Chicago, which is low-middle income) and white (unlike Austin, which is 90+% Black).
No idea what Wright would have thought about racial housing segregation, but it was certainly a knock-on effect of the preservationist cult he accidentally created.
The kind of bespoke construction in Wright's buildings couldn't be built today at an order of magnitude higher price, even considering inflation. A side effect of mass produced standard construction materials has been custom ones becoming astronomically expensive due to the skilled labor to build them having been replaced with mass production.
I suspect projects like fallingwater have siting considerations that wouldn't allow it to be built at all anywhere in the US... isn't it built basically on top of a WOTUS?
It'd be in litigation forever; which is why nobody with the means would try to build something like that today. Even if they could afford the construction, they can't afford the time in court.
Larry Ellison owns a replica Japanese daimyo mansion in Woodside, two mansions on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, and 98% of the island of Lanai...but none of those structures there are (AFAIK) atop a permanent watercourse.
People want square footage and comfort, not design. Frank Lloyd Wright homes look stunning in an Architectural Digest spread, but living in them is not really up to par for modern standards.
That hous is still extremely small for what most people in the US would put in a full sized suburban lot: Nowadays a median build is 2300 square feet (213 square meters). It makes that 1600 square feet look very small. The hallways, the large space dedicated to a great room and just 2 bedrooms won't help.
You will find new houses that small, but typically when it's extremely high value land, so typically infill. And then chances are it's a multi story house that fits the lot to the limit.
That said, the kit pictured will, if constructed, will have amenities & physical qualities that the similarly sized original Jacobs house has had to have retrofitted at great cost.
The main house uses 9,300 square feet of which 4,400 is outdoor terraces, while the guest house totals 4,990 square feet of which 1,950 square feet is outdoor terraces.
Fallingwater is more than work of art, it is a religious experience. I visited it three times (each time my visit to Pittsburgh and the area surrounding the house was to specifically see it) and every damn time I stood weeping leaving the tour.
If you'd like, you can still speak to the last living client (as of last year) of FLW; still living in the house the architect designed for him:
https://alumni.cornell.edu/cornellians/reisley-wright-last-c...
https://archive.org/details/frank-lloyd-wright-ken-burns
Fallingwater has just gone through a series of renovations and all areas are now accessible. If you haven't seen it yet, now is a great time.
If you ever visit Taliesin in Wisconsin (which has a pretty bland), you should also visit the nearby House on the Rock which is a fascinating and very weird collection of esoteric and kitschy items.
The contrast in attitudes and aesthetics between the two is incredibly stark, and it's very interesting to see the reactions of visitors to each location.
This is, by far, one of the weirdest places I've ever visited. Tonal whiplash is an understatement.
As student I had privilege of visiting Taliesin West in Arizona. Easily my favorite architect, a true artist.
I remember rumors going around Phoenix of someone trying to demolish the David and Gladys Wright House in 2011. Someone got a great deal on it around that time, $1m. It sold with a 7-10x return a a few years later.
Viewed in isolation it is a bit underwhelming, but if you see it in landscape it has a charm. I think a copper roof on both structures would make it pop.
If you haven't visited falling water, definitely go. It's American architecture at its finest.
I'm sad that we're coming up towards 100 years on from Fallingwater being built, and yet the American preference for new houses of a similar price (after inflation) is the sort of awful stuff that shows up on mcmansionhell.com.
The instinct to preserve and honor Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, where I live, has basically frozen the place in amber, which isn't something Wright would have wanted, and also worked synergistically with exclusive zoning to keep the Village ultra-expensive (it directly abuts the Austin neighborhood in Chicago, which is low-middle income) and white (unlike Austin, which is 90+% Black).
No idea what Wright would have thought about racial housing segregation, but it was certainly a knock-on effect of the preservationist cult he accidentally created.
The kind of bespoke construction in Wright's buildings couldn't be built today at an order of magnitude higher price, even considering inflation. A side effect of mass produced standard construction materials has been custom ones becoming astronomically expensive due to the skilled labor to build them having been replaced with mass production.
I suspect projects like fallingwater have siting considerations that wouldn't allow it to be built at all anywhere in the US... isn't it built basically on top of a WOTUS?
It'd be in litigation forever; which is why nobody with the means would try to build something like that today. Even if they could afford the construction, they can't afford the time in court.
Larry Ellison owns a replica Japanese daimyo mansion in Woodside, two mansions on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, and 98% of the island of Lanai...but none of those structures there are (AFAIK) atop a permanent watercourse.
People want square footage and comfort, not design. Frank Lloyd Wright homes look stunning in an Architectural Digest spread, but living in them is not really up to par for modern standards.
The newest homes that FLW had a hand in building date from 1959.
By the standards of the time, they were comfortable (if a bit lacking in closet space).
If you'd like, you can buy a modernized kit Usonian (inspired by the Jacobs I house) from Lindal here:
https://lindal.com/home-designs/madison/
That hous is still extremely small for what most people in the US would put in a full sized suburban lot: Nowadays a median build is 2300 square feet (213 square meters). It makes that 1600 square feet look very small. The hallways, the large space dedicated to a great room and just 2 bedrooms won't help.
You will find new houses that small, but typically when it's extremely high value land, so typically infill. And then chances are it's a multi story house that fits the lot to the limit.
Lindal has larger models, for those so inclined.
That said, the kit pictured will, if constructed, will have amenities & physical qualities that the similarly sized original Jacobs house has had to have retrofitted at great cost.
The main house uses 9,300 square feet of which 4,400 is outdoor terraces, while the guest house totals 4,990 square feet of which 1,950 square feet is outdoor terraces.
https://fallingwater.org/media-resources/fallingwater-facts/