It’s time to look around inside Falling Water. The main living area is designed as one large open space, differentiated in function most obviously by the layout of the furniture (much of it built in) and more subtly by changes in ceiling height. Much of the exterior wall is glass, so that the walls of the house do not separate the exterior and interior so much as join them together. Low ceilings and long horizontal mullions give the space an intimate scale despite its sweeping openness.
Here is a good view of the living area from the outside. The view here is of what I’ll arbitrarily call the “left side” because it’s on the left as you enter the space. Note that you can see right through the entire room. In fact, the structure almost reads as two decks, and only later does the living area even register as a significant part of the house. (I love this.) Notice, too, the stairway descending from the living room down to the pool above the waterfall. More about this later.
The first part of the living area a guest sees upon entering is what looks like a small library. Beyond, the entire living space is visible.
Notice how the ceiling structure carries straight through the house to the outside deck, with only minimal interruption by the glass wall. Immediately beyond the bookcase is the stairway to the water (occupying the middle portion of the “left” side of the living area). The stairway is encased in a glass enclosure cleverly designed to fold away and almost disappear when the stairway is opened up.
Beyond the stairway in the far part of the “left” side is the entry to the deck that is visible in the first photograph of this post. Even in this relatively insignificant corner of the house, the detailing reveals a rhythm and harmony that is almost breathtaking.
The “living room” occupies the far half (or more) of the living area, extending from one deck to the other. Built-in furniture conceals the heating vents and enhances the horizontal, intimate scale of the space and its feeling of great harmony and peacefulness.
Around the almost invisible far corner is the entry to the living room’s other deck, and beyond that, the great fireplace with its hearthstone of bedrock.
Notice the red globe-shaped object to the left of the fireplace. This is a great built-in kettle designed by the architect to swing over the fire when in use. A pretty detail. I wonder if they ever actually used it…
Finally, the dining area sits to the rear of the living space (and to the right side of the fireplace as you face the hearth).
The table is a modest size, but the credenza in the background (behind the flowers) contains two more table sections that add on to the end so that the table can be extended into the living room, and a large number of guests can be accommodated. The chair whose back you can see behind the glass and plate is not one of the original chairs that Frank Lloyd Wright designed for this dining room but rather an antique Bavarian chair that the owner’s wife preferred. The original chairs looked like this:
Pretty, yes?
The owner, by the way, was one Edgar J. Kaufmann, Sr. and his wife Liliane. Their son Edgar jr. inherited the house after the death of his parents and left it to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the current owners. Mr. Kaufmann Sr. must have been an interesting person–a hugely successful businessman who loved the outdoors, visionary enough to hire an illustrious architect such as Frank Lloyd Wright and strong-willed enough to stand up to him (rightly or wrongly) on some issues.
Good looking too, my mother observes; and I agree.
