fallingwater house case study

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AD Classics: Fallingwater House / Frank Lloyd Wright

• Written by Adelyn Perez

• Architects: Frank Lloyd Wright : Mendel Glickman and William Wesley Peters
• Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  1939
• Photographs Photographs: Lee Sandstead , Robert P. Ruschak - Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
• Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers:   Kuraray

Text description provided by the architects. In Mill Run , Pennsylvania in the Bear Run Nature Reserve where a stream flows at 1298 feet above sea level and suddenly breaks to fall at 30 feet, Frank Lloyd Wright designed an extraordinary house known as Fallingwater that redefined the relationship between man, architecture, and nature. The house was built as a weekend home for owners Mr. Edgar Kaufmann, his wife, and their son, whom he developed a friendship with through their son who was studying at Wright's school, the Taliesin Fellowship.

The waterfall had been the family's retreat for fifteen years and when they commissioned Wright to design the house they envisioned one across from the waterfall, so that they could have it in their view. Instead, Wright integrated the design of the house with the waterfall itself, placing it right on top of it to make it a part of the Kaufmanns' lives.

Wright's admiration for Japanese architecture was important in his inspiration for this house, along with most of his work. Just like in Japanese architecture, Wright wanted to create harmony between man and nature, and his integration of the house with the waterfall was successful in doing so. 

The house was meant to compliment its site while still competing with the drama of the falls and their endless sounds of crashing water. The power of the falls is always felt, not visually but through sound, as the breaking water could constantly be heard throughout the entire house.

Wright revolved the design of the house around the fireplace, the hearth of the home which he considered to be the gathering place for the family. Here a rock cuts into the fireplace, physically bringing in the waterfall into the house. He also brings notice to this concept by dramatically extending the chimney upwards to make it the highest point on the exterior of the house.

Fallingwater consists of two parts: The main house of the clients which was built between 1936-1938, and the guest room which was completed in 1939. The original house contains simple rooms furnished by Wright himself, with an open living room and compact kitchen on the first floor, and three small bedrooms located on the second floor. The third floor was the location of the study and bedroom of Edgar Jr., the Kaufmann's son.The rooms all relate towards the house's natural surroundings, and the living room even has steps that lead directly into the water below. 

The circulation through the house consists of dark, narrow passageways, intended this way so that people experience a feeling of compression when compared to that of expansion the closer they get to the outdoors. The ceilings of the rooms are low, reaching only up to 6'4" in some places, in order to direct the eye horizontally to look outside. The beauty of these spaces is found in their extensions towards nature, done with long cantilevered terraces. Shooting out at a series of right angles, the terraces add an element of sculpture to the houses aside from their function.

The terraces form a complex, overriding horizontal force with their protrusions that liberated space with their risen planes parallel to the ground. In order to support them, Wright worked with engineers Mendel Glickman and William Wesley Peters. Their solution was in the materials. 

The house took on "a definite masonry form" that related to the site, and for the terraces they decided on a reinforced-concrete structure. It was Wright's first time working with concrete for residences and though at first he did not have much interest in the material, it had the flexibility to be cast into any shape, and when reinforced with steel it gained an extraordinary tensile strength.

The exterior of Fallingwater enforces a strong horizontal pattern with the bricks and long terraces. The windows on the facade have also have a special condition where they open up at the corners, breaking the box of the house and opening it to the vast outdoors. 

The perfection of these details perfected the house itself, and even though the house tends to have structural problems that need constant maintenance due to its location, there is no question that Fallingwater, now a National Historic Landmark, is a work of genius. From its daring cantilevers to its corner window detail and constant sound of the waterfall, Fallingwater is the physical and spiritual occurence of man and architecture in harmony with nature. All you have to do is listen.

Knight, Caroline. Frank Lloyd Wright. Parragon Publishing, 2005. Print. and

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Fallingwater: Everything to Know About Frank Lloyd Wright’s Masterpiece

By Elizabeth Fazzare

Though the late American architect designed more than 1,000 buildings during his career, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater—a private home situated over an active waterfall in forested Mill Run, Pennsylvania—is one of his most celebrated. Considered a masterwork of the organic architecture style , Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater embodies a harmony between site and design that the architect championed. Designed in 1935, the house is defined by a series of stucco-covered concrete cantilevered terraces that are fixed to the natural rock of the fall, and the façade is constructed of local sandstone slabs that create a visual kinship with its environment. Critics raved after Fallingwater opened three years later, with Time magazine calling it Wright’s “most beautiful job” in a January 1938 cover story on the architect.

The clients, Pittsburgh department store magnate Edgar J. Kaufmann and his family, agreed. Their desire to be close to nature in this isolated weekend abode drove the design choices. Aside from the incredible beauty of its natural site, what makes Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater an architectural icon worthy of being designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019? In this in-depth guide from AD , rediscover the importance and magic of Wright’s most famous private residence.

History of Fallingwater

A view outside of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin

Edgar J. Kaufmann and his wife Liliane, the owners of Kaufmann’s department store, became acquainted with architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1934 through their son, Edgar Kaufmann Jr. (who was a student of Wright’s at his six-month-long Taliesin Fellowship program in Spring Green, Wisconsin). They soon commissioned the architect to design a natural family retreat at their favorite countryside destination: a 30-foot waterfall on the Bear Run tributary in southwestern Pennsylvania’s mountainous Laurel Highlands. Knowing the Kaufmanns’ love for nature, Wright told them in 1935: “I want you to live with the waterfall, not just to look at it, but for it to become an integral part of your lives.” His design for Fallingwater therefore suspends the architecture above the fall itself, filling the home constantly with the powerful sound of rushing water.

After completing the 9,300-square-foot main house (4,400 square feet of which are the outdoor terraces), Wright designed an additional 4,990-square-foot guest house. The latter was built in 1939, with 1,950 square feet of its own terraces.

Wright’s design suspended the home above the fall itself, filling the interiors with the powerful sound of rushing water.

What materials is Fallingwater made of?

“There in a beautiful forest was a solid, high rock ledge rising beside a waterfall, and the natural thing seemed to be to cantilever the house from that rock bank over the falling water,” Wright once explained of his 1935 design for the Fallingwater house. While this landform may have dictated—in Wright’s mind—the obvious building site, its massing and material palette were entirely his invention. The horizontal orientation of the home’s large terraces (which are enclosed by parapets) recalls two of Wright’s prior residential architecture explorations. The first is prairie-style architecture, which was inspired by the flatlands of the American Midwest, where Wright was born and raised . The second is his Usonian houses , an urban planning concept for ideal living that consisted of neighborhoods of small L-shaped abodes with a strong indoor-outdoor connection. Concurrently with the design of Fallingwater, Wright was exploring designs for the Usonia house. Later, in the 1950s, he would plan America’s only district of such homes in Pleasantville, New York.

The architect had a desire to create a home that was not on the ground, but of it.

For the vertical elements of the home—its structural piers and chimney, which also run through the interiors—Wright took inspiration from the specificity of Fallingwater’s isolated Pennsylvania site, as chosen by the nature-loving Kaufmann family. He clad them in local sandstone laid in horizontal striations, like the forms in its natural surroundings. To further the house’s connection to nature, Wright used flagstone flooring inside and out and employed large sheaths of glass windows for visual continuity. In Fallingwater’s six bathrooms, cork covers the floors and walls.

The house’s material palette is simple and largely unadorned, aside from two paint colors: ochre on the concrete elements and Cherokee red—the architect’s signature earthen hue—on the steel sash windows and doors.

A view of the home interiors shows Wright’s signature concept of compression and openness, where small spaces lead to large open plan ones.

Interior design

Frank Lloyd Wright was known for designing a residence holistically, including built-in furnishings, lighting fixtures, and millwork, as well as sourcing and arranging furniture for his clients. He executed projects with a vision not only for aesthetic and function, but for family living as defined by the architecture itself. Fallingwater was no exception. The architect designed almost 170 custom wood furnishings for the house in a style that blended harmoniously with the architecture.

The interior layout focuses of Wright’s signature concept of compression and openness, where small spaces lead to large open plan ones. On the first floor of the Fallingwater house, visitors move through the intimately sized entry to a continuous dining and living room. As always, nature is close by. A hatch in the floor opens to reveal an exterior suspended staircase that leads down to the Bear Run stream.

Renovations to Fallingwater

The structural success of Fallingwater’s cantilevers relies on their use of concrete reinforced with steel. During construction, Wright insisted that his design would perform, but on-site builders were less convinced and added more structural steel to the concrete slabs without the architect’s knowledge.

After living in the vacation home for 26 years, the Kaufmann family gave its custody to region’s Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 1963. The organization turned the house into a public museum and oversees its design preservation and all required maintenance to ensure the landmark will last for generations to come. In 2002, Fallingwater’s famous cantilevers underwent a major structural restoration to prevent their collapse.

Roughly 135,000 visitors make the trip to visit the historic site each year.

What’s so special about Fallingwater?

“[Fallingwater] has served well as a house, yet has always been more than that,” Edgar Kaufmann Jr. once said, “a work of art beyond any ordinary measure of excellence.” Surrounded by 1,543 acres of natural land, the architecture is integrated with the spirit of its awe-inspiring environment. While its form is distinct and standout, Fallingwater was designed for a family to live in and among nature. Not only did the Kaufmanns commission the correct architect to achieve their specific ideal of country living, but Frank Lloyd Wright found the perfect clients to design a home that is the pinnacle of his explorations in the connection between land and building. Fallingwater is a 20th-century masterpiece in organic architecture—one that was created nearly four decades before the design world began to consider its impact on the planet.

Who owns Fallingwater now?

The Kaufmann family owned Fallingwater until 1963 when they entrusted it to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Pittsburgh that preserves land and natural resources across the region.

By Erika Owen

By Briana Feigon

By Katherine McLaughlin

Wright’s design of the home included three small bedrooms located on the second floor.

Does anyone live in the Fallingwater house?

Though Fallingwater was designed as a private home for the Kaufmann family, it is now unoccupied to allow architecture aficionados from around the globe to explore its interior and exterior, all carefully designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. According to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy that protects and operates the house, more than 6.4 million visitors have visited Fallingwater since it opened as a public museum in 1964.

How much does the Fallingwater house cost today?

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater house is now museum and has never been listed for sale. However, when the home was constructed in 1935, it cost the Kaufmanns $148,000 to construct, and they paid Wright an additional $11,800 in architectural design fees. Accounting for today’s inflation, the project’s construction would have racked up a price of $3.3 million, and Wright would have brought in $264,445 as its architect.

Today, tickets to visit the house at 1491 Mill Run Road range from $15 for a tour of the grounds to $87 for the most in-depth of its guided tour options, leading guests throughout the interior and exterior of the building and its natural site.

By Rachel Davies

By Dan Howarth

• Other Case Studies

Falling Waters by Frank Lloyd Wright

FALLING WATERS , one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most widely acclaimed works, was designed in 1936 for the family of Pittsburgh department store owner Edgar J. Kaufmann

It is located on PA Route 381 between the villages of Mill Run and Ohiopyle, In Southwestern Pennsylvania, North America.

Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959)

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Edgar Kaufmann Sr. (1885-1955)

“I always feel that I am a better man after having spent hours with you and regret that our paths cross so seldom. “

– Edgar Kaufmann Sr. to Frank Lloyd Wright, 1939

Forest Type at Falling Water Appalachian – Oak Forest 

Forest Type at Falling Water Mesic Forest 

Design Theory

It fits into the hillside and extends out over the falls as if it has always belonged there.

Site Analysis

“There in a beautiful forest was a solid, high rock ledge rising beside a waterfall, and the natural thing seemed to be to cantilever the house from that rock bank over the falling water…Mr. Kaufmann’s  loved the site where the house was built and liked to listen to the waterfall. and he lives intimately with the thing he loves.”

— Frank Lloyd Wright in an interview with Hugh Downs, 1954

Floor Analysis and Functional Distribution  

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Frank Lloyd Wright, Fallingwater

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"briskly emerged from his office...sat down at the table set with the plot plan and started to draw…The design just poured out of him. 'Liliane and E.J. will have tea on the balcony…they’ll cross the bridge to walk in the woods…' Pencils being used up as fast as we could sharpen them....Erasures, overdrawing, modifying. Flipping sheets back and forth. Then, the bold title across the bottom ‘Fallingwater.’ A house has to have a name." [5]

Organic architecture

"this delicate synthesis of nature and the built environment probably counts as the main reason why Fallingwater is such a well-loved work. The contouring of the house into cantilevered ledges responds so sympathetically to the rock strata of the stream banks that it does make Bear Run a more wondrous landscape than it had been before." [7]

Fallingwater falling down?

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• INSPIRATION

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater: The Edgar J. Kaufmann House

Completed in 1938, Fallingwater, designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is a timeless masterpiece of organic architecture. Commissioned by the Kaufmann family in 1935 as a summer retreat, the house is perched over Bear Run, a picturesque site near Pittsburgh. Its design seamlessly integrates with the surrounding landscape, incorporating a waterfall to enhance Wright’s vision of organic architecture. The house seems to float above the cascading waters, creating a dramatic yet elegant dwelling that inspires architects and designers worldwide.

Fallingwater House Technical Information

• Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright |  Biography & Bibliography
• Location: Mill Run, Pennsylvania, United States
• Client: Edgar J. Kaufmann
• Topics: Unesco Heritage , Organic Architecture, American Houses
• Area: 5,330 sq. ft. (495-square-meter)
• Project Year: 1939
• Photographs: © Robert P. Ruschak, Flick Users: © Nick Stanley, © Via Tsuji, © Wally Gobetz, © Jon Fisher, © Timothy Neesam, © Jessica

The architect must be a prophet … if he can’t see at least 10 years ahead, don’t call him an architect. – Frank Lloyd Wright

Fallingwater House Photographs

Fallingwater House: A Piece of Architecture History

The house was commissioned by Pittsburgh department store magnate Edgar J. Kaufmann and his wife, Liliane, as a weekend retreat located in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. Impressed by Wright’s work after visiting their son at Taliesin , an architectural school designed and run by Wright in Wisconsin, the Kaufmanns asked the architect to design their country escape. Their appreciation for innovative architecture did not end with Wright; they also commissioned Richard Neutra to design another iconic residence, the Kaufmann Desert House, in Palm Springs, California . This latter house exemplifies Neutra’s approach to blending indoor and outdoor spaces and is considered a masterpiece of mid-century modern architecture .

Fallingwater is widely recognized for its bold design that seamlessly integrates with the surrounding landscape and waterfall. The house features low ceilings, built-in furnishings, and a central hearth that gives a sense of shelter and refuge, embodying Wright’s “organic architecture.”

Wright’s illustrations of the house, seen from a slightly skewed perspective, are equally iconic. The design showcases his appreciation of Japanese culture and art, specifically the works of Katsushika Hokusai , as elements of the drawing break through the borders, a stylistic device often used by Hokusai. Wright was a collector and dealer of Japanese woodblock prints, and his influence can be seen in his design and aesthetics.

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature — it will never fail you. — Frank Lloyd Wright

Since Wright had suffered from a lack of work during the Great Depression, which halted many architectural endeavors, landing such a hefty commission helped put him back on the map as a top architect. Wright completed construction on the 5,330-square-foot (495-square-meter) main house by 1938 and finished building the 1,700-square-foot (158-square-meter) guest house the following year. After this late-career triumph, the sixty-seven-year-old would go on to create a series of highly original designs that would validate his claim as “The world’s greatest architect.”

The home remained a private residence of the family until 1963, when the son, Edgar Jr., gave the deed to Fallingwater and the surrounding 1,500 acres (607 hectares) to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, dedicating the property as the ‘Kaufmann Conservation on Bear Run, a Memorial to Edgar J. and Liliane S. Kaufmann.’ Fallingwater first opened its doors in 1964 for public tours.

Since then, many entities have recognized the importance of Fallingwater’s artistry. In the late 1970s, the U.S. Department of the Interior designated the museum a National Historic Landmark. In 2019, UNESCO added Fallingwater (and seven other Frank Lloyd Wright-designed sites) to its list of World Heritage Sites, marking an impressive international recognition of its architectural legacy.

In addition to Fallingwater, The Robie House is widely considered a masterpiece of Frank Lloyd Wright’s residential architecture.

The Fallingwater House Plans by Frank Lloyd Wright

Fallingwater House by Frank Lloyd Wright Image Gallery

Frank Lloyd Wright: A Pioneering American Architect and Educator

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) was a visionary American architect, designer, writer, and educator who left an indelible mark on the architectural world. Throughout his 70-year career, he designed over 1,000 structures, each exemplifying his philosophy of organic architecture, which emphasizes harmony between humanity and the environment. Wright’s contributions to 20th-century architecture have inspired countless architects worldwide, cementing his legacy as a pioneer of modern architecture.

Full Bio | Works from Frank Lloyd Wright  

• Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Wright, F. L., Kaufmann, E. J., Kaufmann, L. S., Lipchitz, J., Kent State University, S. […] Zuber, N., Boucher, J. E., photographer. (1933)  Fallingwater, State Route 381 Stewart Township, Ohiopyle, Fayette County, PA . Pennsylvania Ohiopyle Fayette County, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/pa1690/.
• Fallingwater (Rizzoli Classics)  by Lynda Waggoner   (Editor), Christopher Little (Photographer)

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Is it true that the Kaufmans were tired of waiting for the drawings of the house and finally said we want to come in and see The prints for the house. They finally said we’re coming up to look at the drawings, so Frank Wright sat down and with in a few hours had the drawings finished just before the Kaufman’s walked in?

Hello Heinz, Yes, this is a true story. Frank Lloyd Wright was working on the design for the Kaufman House, and the Kaufman clients were eager to see the plans. The story goes that Wright sat down and worked quickly to finish the drawings just before the Kaufmans arrived to see them.

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Falling Water House: A Case Study in Architectural Innovation

Introduction

Nestled amidst the serene woodlands of Pennsylvania, Fallingwater House stands as a timeless testament to architectural brilliance. Designed by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright , this iconic residence has captivated the world with its harmonious integration with nature and innovative design . Frank Lloyd Wright, a visionary architect of the 20th century, revolutionized the field with his organic architecture principles and groundbreaking concepts. Fallingwater House showcases his ability to merge the built environment seamlessly with the natural world, leaving a lasting impact on architectural discourse.

Architectural Design and Concept

Fallingwater House is a prime example of how architecture can coexist harmoniously with its surroundings. Built directly over a picturesque waterfall, the design embraces the natural landscape , blurring the boundaries between the built environment and the organic world. Wright’s organic architecture philosophy emphasizes the relationship between buildings, occupants, and the environment. Fallingwater House embodies this approach through its use of natural materials , incorporation of the site’s features, and the integration of the surrounding trees and flowing water into the design. One of the most striking features of Fallingwater House is its cantilevered design, where portions of the structure extend beyond the supporting columns. This innovative approach creates a sense of weightlessness and allows for breathtaking views of the waterfall and surrounding landscape.

Structural Engineering and Construction

To achieve the cantilevered design and ensure structural stability, Wright employed reinforced concrete , a pioneering material at the time. This choice of material allowed for greater flexibility in design and created the illusion of the house floating above the waterfall. The challenge of balancing structural integrity with aesthetic appeal was masterfully addressed in the construction of Fallingwater House. Wright collaborated closely with engineers to develop innovative structural solutions, ensuring the long-term stability of the cantilevered design without compromising its architectural beauty . Constructing a house over a waterfall presented unique challenges. Specialized techniques were employed to ensure the stability of the structure and address concerns such as moisture control. Through meticulous planning and engineering expertise, Wright and his team overcame these obstacles, resulting in a remarkable architectural achievement.

Interior Design and Spatial Organization

Fallingwater House blurs the boundaries between indoor and outdoor spaces, allowing for a seamless connection with nature. Expansive windows and open terraces bring the outside in, creating a sense of unity and allowing residents to fully appreciate the surrounding beauty. The interior layout of Fallingwater House was meticulously designed to optimize the flow of movement and enhance the overall user experience. Strategic placement of rooms and circulation patterns allows for a natural progression throughout the space, integrating function with aesthetics. Wright’s emphasis on natural light is evident in Fallingwater House. Thoughtfully positioned windows and skylights bathe the interior in natural illumination, creating a play of light and shadow that enhances the visual experience. Each room offers captivating views of the waterfall, forest, or flowing stream.

Water Features and Relationship with Landscape

Fallingwater House’s iconic positioning directly over the waterfall creates a mesmerizing connection with the natural element. The sound of cascading water permeates the space, fostering a sense of tranquility and unity with the surroundings. The carefully designed terraces and balconies serve as extensions of the landscape, seamlessly blending the built environment with nature. They provide inviting outdoor spaces where residents can immerse themselves in the sights and sounds of the waterfall and forest. Wright’s meticulous attention to detail is evident in the integration of natural elements within Fallingwater House. The incorporation of existing rocks and trees into the structure creates a unique and harmonious relationship between the man-made and natural elements, enhancing the overall aesthetic appeal.

Also, read- How to Design a Walkable City: Creating an Urban Environment that Promotes Sustainable Mobility

Legacy and Cultural Significance

Fallingwater House has achieved global recognition as a masterpiece of modern architecture . Its innovative design, seamless integration with nature, and enduring appeal have solidified its place among the most significant architectural achievements of the 20th century. The influence of Fallingwater House extends far beyond its physical structure. Architects and designers around the world continue to draw inspiration from its organic principles, innovative use of materials, and the successful integration of architecture with the natural environment. Recognizing its cultural and architectural importance, Fallingwater House is diligently preserved and protected. Conservation efforts ensure that future generations can experience and appreciate the timeless beauty and ingenuity of this architectural masterpiece.

Public Reception and Visitor Experience

A. Iconic Status and Tourist Attraction Fallingwater House has attained an iconic status and attracts visitors from all corners of the globe. Its breathtaking beauty, architectural significance, and unique location make it a must-visit destination for architecture enthusiasts and nature lovers alike. To further promote architectural education and appreciation, Fallingwater House offers various educational programs, workshops, and exhibitions. These initiatives provide visitors with a deeper understanding of Frank Lloyd Wright’s design principles and the historical context of the house. Fallingwater House has a positive impact on the local community and economy. The steady stream of visitors contributes to the region’s tourism industry, supporting local businesses, hospitality services, and cultural development.

Lessons from Fallingwater House

Fallingwater House challenges the traditional separation between architecture and nature. It serves as a powerful reminder of the beauty and harmony that can be achieved when the built environment coexists harmoniously with the natural world. The seamless integration of form and function in Fallingwater House showcases the importance of considering both aesthetic and practical aspects in architectural design. Wright’s meticulous attention to detail demonstrates how architectural innovation can enhance the quality of the human experience. Fallingwater House pushes the boundaries of design innovation by challenging conventional architectural norms. It serves as an inspiration for architects and designers to think outside the box, embrace new materials and techniques, and create spaces that captivate the imagination.

Fallingwater House stands as a testament to the brilliance of Frank Lloyd Wright and his enduring contributions to architectural design. Its integration with nature, innovative use of materials, and timeless aesthetic appeal make it an architectural icon. The legacy of Fallingwater House extends beyond its physical structure. Frank Lloyd Wright’s design principles and visionary approach continue to shape the architectural discourse and inspire generations of architects and designers. Fallingwater House serves as a profound source of inspiration for future architectural endeavors. It challenges architects to embrace nature, push the boundaries of innovation, and create spaces that harmonize with their surroundings, leaving a lasting impact on those who encounter them.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

a. What is Fallingwater House? Fallingwater House is an iconic residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, known for its unique integration with a waterfall and its organic architectural design.

b. Who is Frank Lloyd Wright? Frank Lloyd Wright was a renowned American architect who revolutionized the field with his organic architecture principles and innovative design concepts. He is considered one of the most influential architects of the 20th century.

c. What makes Fallingwater House unique? Fallingwater House is unique for its integration with nature, cantilevered design, and its positioning directly over a waterfall. It is recognized as a masterpiece of modern architecture.

d. Can the Fallingwater House be visited by the public? Yes, Fallingwater House is open to the public for guided tours. Visitors can explore the remarkable architecture and experience the breathtaking natural setting.

e. How has Fallingwater House influenced modern architecture? Fallingwater House has had a profound influence on modern architecture. Its organic design principles, innovative use of materials, and integration with the natural environment continue to inspire architects and designers worldwide.

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Fallingwater: A Celebrated Case of DAV Analysis

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• Ömer Akın 2  

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Frank Llyod Wright’s Fallingwater House designed and built for Edgar Kaugmann, Jr. is one of the most celebrated examples of design excellence, innovation, and creativity. The building is located on Bear Run in the Mill Run section of Stewart Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, located in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains, near Pittsburgh, PA. The house is partly built on a waterfall, which at the time of its construction became a source of several construction challenges including moisture damage and structural problems. How these challenges were negotiated and resolved over time and how the Fallingwater stood the test of time exemplify a unique opportunity to introduce the decision-making process of value-based design. This chapter presents a retrospective design added value analysis of Fallingwater, including key historical events that contributed to its design, construction, and emergence and resolution of its several construction challenges.

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Pfeiffer in Millar CJ (1986) Frank Lloyd Wright letters to clients the press. California State University, Fresno, CA, p 82.

Personal observation of author and his guests.

The issues summarized in this section are based on testimonials and documentation provided by Mr Louis Astorino, Sr.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/07/obituaries/robert-silman-engineer-who-saved-fallingwater-dies-at-83.html

Schoemaker, P J H (1980) Experiments on Decisions Under Risk: The Expected Utility Hypothesis, Kluwer-Nijhoff Publishing, Boston.

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Crouch EAC, Wilson R (1982) Risk/benefit analysis . Ballinger Publishing Co., Cambridge MA

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Millar CJ (1986) Frank Lloyd Wright letters to clients the press. California State University, Fresno, CA, p 82

Toker F (2003) Fallingwater rising. Alfred A Knopf, New York

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A unique feature is what adds value to the design of a building. A benchmark is a comparative baseline for assessing differential value assessments of that design feature. Develop feature and benchmarking descriptions for a building of your choice where you have sufficient information to draft a table like the one provided below.

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Akın, Ö. (2022). Fallingwater: A Celebrated Case of DAV Analysis. In: Design Added Value. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28860-0_3

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Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater

Project Highlights

• Treasured landmark needed preservation
• Stone floor was removed to expose the inner workings of Wright’s design
• Challenged with preserving original setting, furnishings and artwork- project completed on schedule

Project Description

Completed in 1937, Fallingwater is one of America’s most treasured landmarks. It is comprised of a series of concrete cantilever “trays” 30-feet above a waterfall. Excessive deflections of the cantilever had caused cracking and early efforts at repair had failed to permanently address and repair them. The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy required a solution to preserve this landmark structure. After a thorough design review, the owner and engineer selected an external post-tensioning solution for its durability, aesthetics and structural unobtrusiveness.

For the first time since original construction, the stone floor was removed to expose the inner workings of Wright’s design. To preserve existing building elements and minimize incidental damage, the team “gently” chipped and drilled openings, while keeping construction debris from falling into the stream.

Construction plans called for structural strengthening of three support girders spanning in the north-south direction with multistrand post-tensioning tendons consisting while monostrand post-tensioning tendons were used for the east-west direction.

Additional work items included welding steel cover plates, attaching structural steel channels, injecting epoxy grout, doweling reinforced cast-in-place concrete blocks and the installation of near surface mounted carbon fiber rods. Challenged with preserving Fallingwater’s original setting, furnishings and artwork, the project was successfully completed in six months.

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Falling Water

Related Papers

Shamiram Sogomonyan

hugues henri

Above all, there was the relative filiation between Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), which perpetuates architectural modernity in the United States, even if Wright also left Sullivan's office to emancipate himself from the "beloved Master". He had joined the Adler and Sullivan agency in 1887 and quickly became its foreman, but in 1893, Sullivan had to fire Wright who showed an unfortunate tendency to build, for his own profit, individual houses for the clients of the Adler-Sullivan firm, which his contract as foreman expressly prohibited him from doing. Connecting Richardson and Wright is also essential. Indeed, Richardson's Shingle Style houses, such as the Hay House in Washington DC, and the Paine House in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1886, developed open floor plans from sumptuous staircases. In addition, Richardson preceded Wright in his interest in traditional Japanese architecture and interior design. Wright's later expansion of scale, increasing the horizontal dimension while raising the apparent height, to give monumentality to the building, as he first experienced in the Winslow House in River Forest, Illinois, 1893, is already present in Richardson's and Price's work, another architect of the "Schingle Style" that inspired Wright's first Oak Park house in 1889. It is therefore certain that despite his indisputable personal genius, Wright owes an immense debt to these architects of the "Shingle Style", such as Stanfort White, Wilson Eyrec and Bruce Price, and of course Henry Richardson, from whom, according to Vincent Scully, the whole "Prairie Style" is derived. On the other hand, the influence of traditional architecture and traditional Japanese spatial design has an important place in Wright's work. He saw the HO- O-Den Temple, built by the Japanese government for the Colombian Exposition of 1893. The encounter with Japanese architecture exerted a decisive impulse on Wright's career according to Grant Carpenter Manson, an American art historian. Thus, the Takonama, center of contemplation and center of the Japanese house, became for Wright the Oversized Soul, animist place and center of the Usonian house. The open relation inside/outside, the non-partitioning of the interior space, the extension of the eaves, all this was present in the HO-O-Den Temple. Wright's singularity is multifaceted: he knows and has practiced the functionalism of the Chicago school in Adler-Sullivan's studio. He acknowledged having read Viollet-le-Duc, his Lectures on Architecture and his Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture, which, according to him, enabled him to emerge from the despair he had felt after reading another great pre-modern writer, Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris and his perception of the Renaissance as the twilight of art and especially architecture, because it was the time when the machine, the printing press, dealt its fatal blows to art. It is also clear that he knows John Ruskin, William Morris and the Arts & Crafts movement and that he is sensitive to a certain extent to the Ruskinian refusal of industrial mechanization.

ACSA Annual Meeting Proceedings

Max Underwood

This paper examines the prolific residential career of Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959), and how he was able to formulate a coherent technical vocabulary out of two investigations, one into the "Technology of Appearance" and a second into the "Technology of Innovation", which ultimately led to a "Technology of Synthesis" and the realization of his masterpiece, Fallingwater in 1935." As Frank Lloyd Wright reminds us, "A house we like to believe is the status quo; a noble consort to man and the trees; therefore the house should have response and such texture as will quiet the whole and make it graciously at one with external Nature. Human houses should not be like boxes, blazing in the sun, nor should we outrage the Machine by trying to make dwelling places too complementary to Machinery. Any building for humane purposes should be an elemental, sympathetic feature of the ground, complementary to its natural environment, belonging by kinship to the terrain and place."

Olivia Valentine

From antiquity until the present day, architecture has taken many forms and has continually evolved into grand masterpieces. Each building or design becomes a reflection of the architect, so for Frank Lloyd Wright, those buildings were born from ideas and interpretations of an “organic” architecture, that were harmonious with nature, celestial, and modern in design. They were based upon his theory of how “form and function are one.” However, does his architecture still influence new themes in architecture today, or was it just a period in history, full of natural grandeur, which is now being glossed over by many? While many historians question and ponder this, his work has, by all means, captivated and inspired those that visit his works that are still standing today, such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Throughout his constant study, vigilance, and determination, his focus and incorporation of nature into the modern and abstract allowed him to create some of the world’s most infamous works which illustrate his organic architecture. This style has allowed for viewers and visitors alike to explore and journey through his creations.

Daniel Naegele

Henry Luce, owner of “Life”, “Time”, “Fortune” and “Architectural Forum”, recognized Frank Lloyd Wright’s immense charisma and talent and featured both the architect and his work in all four of his renowned popular press journals in January 1938 – though clearly he did so for his own ends. Luce believed fervently in America. In 1937, the German architects Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius migrated to the USA to assume leadership of two of its nest schools of architecture. Luce countered this promotion of European architecture by featuring Wright in his four journals. Despite Wright’s immense unpopularity at the time, Luce put him on the cover of “Time” and prominently presented him and his work in “Life”, “Fortune”, and “Architectural Forum”. That Luce’s ideals were not the same as those of Wright mattered little. With Luce’s endorsement, Wright became the most popular American architect in history, a position he retains to this day. But how very odd that decidedly arti cial medi...

Design Issues

Peter Clericuzio

Lily Alvarez Rabadan

¿How does the organic style of Frank Lloyd Wright is reflected in the “Fallingwater” house of Edgar Kaufmann, 1936?

Carlo Bettini, Enrica Bistagnino (editors), "Dialogues Visions and Visuality", FrancoAngeli, Milan 2022, pp. 1731-1737.

Carlos Montes Serrano , Sara Peña Fernández

Frank Lloyd Wright always acknowledged the importance of models to make his work known among their clients. He was particularly active between the wars. Owing to the lack of commissions during this period, he promoted the publication of his work on specialized magazines, participated in several itinerant exhibitions, and published some books about himself and his ideas. In this context, models made for both clients and exhibitions were the best way to reach a wider audience. Not only are these models to be claimed as a medium, but also as a way to seduce and persuade the public of the qualities of his Organic Architecture. Even though Frank Lloyd Wright's drawings have been widely covered by researchers, his full-scale architectural models have been neglected somehow. Fortunately, Kathryn Smith published her book Wright on Exhibit: Frank Lloyd Wright's Architectural Exhibitions in 2017.. She attained to identify fifty seven models, some of which have been destroyed or disappeared, from different sources. In this essay, we mean to study Wright's models in the exhibitions organized by the Museum of Modern Art in in New York during the 1930s and 1940s.

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Preservation History

Preserving Fallingwater has been ongoing almost since its completion. From daily maintenance and housekeeping tasks to larger efforts to protect the house, the care of Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece is paramount to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy as it continues the important practice of monitoring and preserving Fallingwater for future generations. Fallingwater is a composition of varied materials—stone, concrete, steel, glass, and wood—each imbued with qualities that celebrated what Wright termed “organic architecture.” Like organic elements in nature, these materials have shown signs of deterioration over the past eighty years, due in large part to their exposure to a range of climate conditions, especially humidity and sunlight that have impacted the collections and the severe freeze-thaw conditions of southwest Pennsylvania and water infiltration that affect the structural materials. The preservation of Fallingwater is ongoing, and one reason visitors are asked to refrain from touching objects and furnishings in the house.

REINFORCED CONCRETE

Fallingwater provided Frank Lloyd Wright with an opportunity to utilize a modern material with great structural capabilities that could be extended into dramatic cantilevered terraces, stepped and curved to provide a canopy walkway, and smoothly shaped to provide interest to stairs, eaves, and ceilings. Yet, reinforced concrete also provides the most preservation challenges to the house, and as early as the 1950s portions of the reinforced concrete fabric of the house were being reconstructed. The composition of the concrete used at Fallingwater for the walls was a mixture of cement, sand, and rounded river gravel. Within the concrete, steel reinforcements, long rods of different diameters, were added, laid in a crossed formation or bent to provide additional strength.  The rounded tops of parapets were formed of a cement and sand blend, applied by hand after the wall had cured. This “cold joint,” where the two applications meet, has resulted in long irregular cracking that also served as an entrance point for water to seep between the concrete walls and its finish stucco coat.

The same mix of concrete was used for the house’s trellises, long expanses suspended over the drive or cantilevered over terraces. The east trellis, off of the living room, which collapsed in 1953, 1973, and 1982 due to falling tree limbs, was last rebuilt using post-tensioned thread bars under the direction of Taliesin Associated Architects. More recently, in 2012, a beam of the drive’s trellis was replaced due to structural failing, and a section retained for study, should it be necessary in the future.

The replacement of all roofing surfaces in 1987 and 1988 under the direction of LD Astorino and Associates necessitated the recasting of several curved ends and corners of the concrete eaves. In 1990 a comprehensive analysis of the concrete and stone masonry was conducted by Wank Adams Slavin Associates in 1990. That same firm submitted a two-volume preservation master plan for Fallingwater in 1999 which included recommendations for the care and treatment of concrete as well as the other building materials used in the house.

The most invasive preservation action occurred during the years 2001 and 2002 when a structural strengthening of the living room cantilevers was conducted. From the time of their moving in to 1955, the Kaufmanns documented the deflection, or downward tilting, of the terraces to be approximately four inches. In 1994, a University of Virginia graduate student’s thesis research concluded that the terraces had deflected further, one to almost seven inches from its original position. This sparked a fuller investigation of the cantilevers by Robert A. Silman Associates, and crack meters and tilt meters were applied a year later to the terraces to record any changes.  Their resulting five-volume structural analysis report informed much of the restoration that occurred from 1998 to 2002.

The analysis suggested that the concrete and steel of the terraces was overstressed due to errors in the design of their reinforcement, which meant they could no longer function as designed. The first step taken in halting the deflection was to install shoring and a steel support beam beneath the living room terraces. This was followed by the removal of the flagstone floor from the living room and the subfloor materials in order to expose the concrete beams beneath. A post-tensioning cable system was employed, where bundles of high strength steel cable were first anchored into the concrete piers beneath the house and then attached to the sides of three of the four the major reinforced concrete beams located in the living room and tightened.  This provided a support system that stopped the terraces from deflecting further and was all but invisible once the floor was replaced.

In 2011 cracks appeared in the reinforced concrete piers under the house, and so in 2013 a series of crack and tilt meters was installed to gauge the deflection, if any, of the terraces. Twelve crack meters monitored the master bedroom terrace and the concrete piers underneath the house, while four tilt meters affixed to the east terrace and west terrace of the living room and the master bedroom terrace monitored any vertical changes. A decade after the post-tensioning system was mounted, the terraces have only shown movement to approximately 1/100th of an inch. Fallingwater is continued to be monitored on a semi-annual basis.

STONE MASONRY

Stone is perhaps the most symbolic of the materials used at Fallingwater. Pottsville sandstone was acquired from a nearby quarry to use in building walls, and laid in a rough, shifting manner to imitate the natural stone ledges found jutting out along Bear Run. Projecting beyond the line of the mortar as much as three or four inches, this technique was meant to help unify the house to its site, and the effect is one of making it appear that Fallingwater is growing out of its landscape. A recently acquired series of fifty photographs taken in 1936 and 1937 show the assembly of stone and the manpower needed to erect the walls, and help in understanding the way in which the house rose.

 From a preservation standpoint, the arrangement of the stone and the deep crevices between each present opportunities for water to pool or seep into the walls, leading to damage on interior ceiling and wall surfaces. The ledges of each row of stone have small depressions within which water accumulates, and permits for the accumulation of snow that, once melted, is drawn into the joints of the walls. The mortar, too, can be responsible as any gaps between it and the stone will lead to hairline cracks and separations that with seasonal freezing and thawing often become more problematic over time.

For horizontal surfaces, flagstone was used throughout to provide seamless transitions between the exterior and interior. These relatively thin stones, averaging around two inches in thickness, were hand laid and assembled freeform across the floors, terraces, and stairs of the house. They fit snugly against the boulder of the living room hearth, and when used on the interior are waxed to appear wet like the stream bottom of Bear Run. When the living room floor was removed in 2001 to install the post-tension cable system, 557 stones were individually numbered, stored safely, and later reassembled like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

A thorough cleaning of the exterior stone walls is performed periodically, the most expansive undertaken between 1989 and 1992 under the direction of Wank Adams Slavin Associates. In 2012, two sides of the chimney mass were cleaned to remove salt build-up, staining, and biological growth. Removal of moss on the capstones running along the tops of the roof parapet, a key indicator of water infiltration, is part of routine preservation maintenance and various areas of the house are repointed as needed as part of the ongoing care of the masonry.

Glass is an important element of Fallingwater’s design, acting as a protective barrier between indoors and outdoors, but also as a framework to the nature beyond. Frank Lloyd Wright specified quarter-inch thick polished Pittsburgh Plate Glass for the house and it was used in all windows, the full-height doors leading to the terraces, and in horizontal applications such as skylights and the telescoping hatch doors leading to the stream below the living room.

It also plays a role in illustrating the engineering properties of the house’s cantilevered design where glass meets glass to create an “invisible” corner window. Wright uses this technique to show there is no need for the traditional vertical supports at the corners of his rooms, and the absence of a corner mullion provides an uninterrupted, if not dramatic, view to the outdoors. From the exterior, especially when the house is lit at night, the glass seems to disappear entirely and enhancing the effect of Fallingwater as a “lantern in the forest.”

In 1987, the original window glass was replaced with a laminated ultraviolet light filtering glass that helps to protect the interiors, furnishings, and artwork from harmful sunlight. In 2010, many windows began to show signs of delamination, or cloudiness, especially evident around their frames, a main indicator of the glass’s failure. Fallingwater’s Window Legacy Fund was established soon after to create an endowment that provides for continued care and replacement of the window and door glass, and consequently its collections.

The use of steel at Fallingwater is both invisible and everywhere apparent. Reinforcing bars used within the concrete provide tensile strength , and are inserted in varying ways into the liquid material as it is formed. In walls and floors, it is arranged as a woven mesh while in the covered canopy of the stairs to the guest house, it is laid as a series of concentric arcs. Repairing concrete will also often mean exposing or working around embedded reinforcing bars, in some cases cutting through them, which can add difficulty to a preservation project. If exposed, the bars are coated with a noncorrosive agent to keep them from rusting within the new concrete.

The windows and door frames at Fallingwater are also made of steel, and were specified by Frank Lloyd Wright to be manufactured by Hope’s Windows of Jamestown, New York. At a time when sashes were traditionally made of wood, the steel was a relatively new material for Wright, who in the January 1938 issue of  Architectural Forum  wrote, “Steel sash came within reach…for the first time.” The manufacturing process, rolling steel into Z or T shapes to ease fabrication, allowed for a variety of special shapes. Originally painted “Cherokee” red, the name for a variety of earthy red hues preferred by Wright over his career, the color deepened with subsequent near-matches by other manufacturers, but returned to Wright’s specification by Edgar Kaufmann, jr. in 1976.

In 2000, the original but somewhat deteriorating steel sash windows and doors were restored, with many layers of paint removed, corroded portions replaced, and the painted finish reapplied. In 2012, a second large-scale restoration of the steel sash was conducted on a selection of windows and doors throughout the house, and this preservation continues to be part of Fallingwater’s annual maintenance plan.

SPECIALTY FINISHES

The use of cork tiles on the floors and walls in Fallingwater’s six bathrooms was at Edgar Kaufmann jr.’s suggestion, feeling that Frank Lloyd Wright’s specified stone floors would be too cold when leaving the shower. The natural color of cork, a tree bark product, related well to the palette of materials Wright specified overall, and had the added acoustic benefit, warmth, and softness underfoot. When used as a flooring material, the cork tiles were hand waxed, giving them a shiny finish that supplemented their natural ability to repel water.

As a wallcovering, the cork was left unwaxed, its natural state and color provided visual interest though it  began to show water damage in locations were water leaks persist. . The effects of water damage on the cork is still evident in the guest bathroom of the main house, yet the bath in the guest house was restored in 2007 with the concrete wall surface renewed and  repainted before new cork was applied. The variety of bathroom configurations in the house was such that cork covered part or all of the walls and was sometimes used as flooring within the shower stall.

The largest room without flagstone flooring is the kitchen, where a nine-by-nine inch asbestos tiling product was specified for ease of maintenance and comfort for the Kaufmanns’ cook. In 1988, after nearly fifty years of wear, the kitchen flooring was replaced with a solid vinyl product, cut to size and custom colored to match the “Cherokee” red of the original. A second replacement, in 2013, gave the floor a fresher appearance and closely resembles the original in size and color.

Fallingwater’s stucco-covered concrete has always been painted, its original light ochre color specified by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1937. Despite the architect’s proclamation in the January 1938 issue of  Architectural Forum  that the rounded roof edges would keep the concrete walls clean by allowing water to roll off, the paint finish soiled often. Organic debris from overhanging trees, collecting and degrading on the concrete surfaces, also produced prime conditions for encouraging fungi along the roof joints.

Peeling paint was also becoming an issue as the house aged, with so many layers applied that the walls appeared as if the stucco had loosened. Between 1937 and 1959, the house had been repainted at least six times, using a variety of paint manufacturer products, and in 1978 the house was sandblasted to remove all of the paint before the concrete was waterproofed and covered with an acrylic-based paint coating.

The exterior paint continued to fail, particularly on the building’s vertical surfaces. Between 2001 and 2006, Fallingwater evaluated over 120 exterior paint test panels produced by four different manufacturers in applications on and near the guest house before selecting specially colored ochre tinted exterior flat paint product developed by  PPG Paints . Like any house, the interior and exterior concrete surfaces of Fallingwater are repainted periodically.

FURNITURE CONSERVATION

The nearly 170 built-in and freestanding wood furnishings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Fallingwater share many of the characteristics of the house itself. Fabricated of North Carolina black walnut, the tables, shelving, desks, and banquette seats feature cantilevered horizontal elements, their edges and corners rounded to soften the line and suggest the rounds edges of the concrete parapets. Door fronts and table top veneers contain a light colored band of sapwood within the grain field to give them movement and variety.

In 1986, conservation of Fallingwater’s wood furnishings was undertaken with funds provided by the Getty Grant Program and the National Endowment for the Arts, with later support from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. The work entailed cleaning woodwork, making small repairs, and addressing structural concerns where water damage or deterioration had occurred. During this time, a large section of the second floor hall cabinets was removed and replicated. The damaged piece, stored away for reference use by the conservation team, still provides insight into the construction methods used to realize Wright’s designs.

The uneven quality of previous restoration treatments was corrected and since the completion of that intensive conservation effort, general woodwork cleaning and repairs to a selection of furniture has been part of Fallingwater’s annual winter maintenance program. A standardized series of conservation treatments was established by conservators Thom Gentle and Victoria Jefferies, in many cases improving upon restoration methods used in the past, and continues under the direction of Sean Fisher of Robert Mussey Associates. Year-round, Fallingwater’s housekeeping team maintains the general condition of the wood furniture, with light dusting the only method used to maintain its finish.

The upholstered zabuton floor cushions, banquette seat cushions, and lounge chairs also require occasional updating. The fabrics are vacuumed regularly, and when reupholstery is necessary, fabric is used from stock saved in our collections storage for just that purpose. In the spring of 2014, the two off-white T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings lounge chairs were recovered in a replacement fabric of the same shade, but not the same texture, of the original. Seat cushions for the dining table and desk were also recovered at that time, using the red-orange colorway of the same wool fabric.

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Sergei Ryakhovsky (Sergei Vasilyevich Ryakhovsky) a Soviet-Russian serial killer known as the Balashikha Ripper and The Hippopotamus. Ryakhovsky was convicted for the killing of nineteen people in the Moscow area between 1988 and 1993. Ryakhovsky's mainly stabbed or strangulated his victims, he mutilated some bodies, mainly in the genital area. Allegedly Ryakhovsky carried out necrophilic acts on his victims and stole their belongings. Ryakhovsky standing 6’5" tall and weighting 286 pounds, gaining him the nickname, The Hippo. Sergei Ryakhovsky died on January 21st 2005 from untreated tuberculosis while serving his life sentence in prison.

Sergei Ryakhovsky Serial Killer Profile

Serial Killer Sergei Ryakhovsky (aka) the Balashikha Ripper, The Hippopotamus, was active for 6 years between 1988-1993 , known to have ( 19 confirmed / 19 possible ) victims. This serial killer was active in the following countries: Russia

Sergei Ryakhovsky was born on December 29th 1962 in Balashikha, Moscow Oblast, Soviet Union. He had a physically defect. During his education he had academic, social or discipline problems including being teased or picked on.

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Sergei Ryakhovsky died on January 21st 2005 (Age 42), cause of death: natural causes, untreated tuberculosis at a maximum-security penal colony in Solikamsk, Perm Oblast, Russia.

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Sergei Ryakhovsky has been listed on Killer.Cloud since November of 2016 and was last updated 4 years ago.

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The unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s), in separate events. Serial Killer as defined by the FBI at the 2005 symposium.

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Rape is usually defined as having sexual intercourse with a person who does not want to, or cannot consent.

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Necrophilia, also called thanatophilia, is a sexual attraction or sexual act involving corpses. Serial Killer Necrophiliacs have been known to have sex with the body of their victim(s).

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The Unique Burial of a Child of Early Scythian Time at the Cemetery of Saryg-Bulun (Tuva)

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Pages:  379-406

In 1988, the Tuvan Archaeological Expedition (led by M. E. Kilunovskaya and V. A. Semenov) discovered a unique burial of the early Iron Age at Saryg-Bulun in Central Tuva. There are two burial mounds of the Aldy-Bel culture dated by 7th century BC. Within the barrows, which adjoined one another, forming a figure-of-eight, there were discovered 7 burials, from which a representative collection of artifacts was recovered. Burial 5 was the most unique, it was found in a coffin made of a larch trunk, with a tightly closed lid. Due to the preservative properties of larch and lack of air access, the coffin contained a well-preserved mummy of a child with an accompanying set of grave goods. The interred individual retained the skin on his face and had a leather headdress painted with red pigment and a coat, sewn from jerboa fur. The coat was belted with a leather belt with bronze ornaments and buckles. Besides that, a leather quiver with arrows with the shafts decorated with painted ornaments, fully preserved battle pick and a bow were buried in the coffin. Unexpectedly, the full-genomic analysis, showed that the individual was female. This fact opens a new aspect in the study of the social history of the Scythian society and perhaps brings us back to the myth of the Amazons, discussed by Herodotus. Of course, this discovery is unique in its preservation for the Scythian culture of Tuva and requires careful study and conservation.

Keywords: Tuva, Early Iron Age, early Scythian period, Aldy-Bel culture, barrow, burial in the coffin, mummy, full genome sequencing, aDNA

Information about authors: Marina Kilunovskaya (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation E-mail: [email protected] Vladimir Semenov (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation E-mail: [email protected] Varvara Busova  (Moscow, Russian Federation).  (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation E-mail:  [email protected] Kharis Mustafin  (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Technical Sciences. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.  Institutsky Lane, 9, Dolgoprudny, 141701, Moscow Oblast, Russian Federation E-mail:  [email protected] Irina Alborova  (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Biological Sciences. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.  Institutsky Lane, 9, Dolgoprudny, 141701, Moscow Oblast, Russian Federation E-mail:  [email protected] Alina Matzvai  (Moscow, Russian Federation). Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.  Institutsky Lane, 9, Dolgoprudny, 141701, Moscow Oblast, Russian Federation E-mail:  [email protected]

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Suburbanization Problems in the USSR : the Case of Moscow

• Référence bibliographique

Gornostayeva Galina A. Suburbanization Problems in the USSR : the Case of Moscow . In: Espace, populations, sociétés , 1991-2. Les franges périurbaines Peri-urban fringes. pp. 349-357.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3406/espos.1991.1474

www.persee.fr/doc/espos_0755-7809_1991_num_9_2_1474

• RIS (ProCite, Endnote, ...)

Galina A. GORNOSTAYEVA

Moscow University

Suburbanization Problems

in the USSR :

the Case of Moscow

Suburbanization processes typical to cities in Western Europe, the USA and other countries are not observed in the USSR or they are distorted to such an extent that they may not be compared with existing standards. This states the question how Soviet cities-succeeded in escaping this stage of urban development. In order to answer this question, we should first summarize the main aspects of Western suburbanization.

Firstly, it is well known that the urbanization processes are linked to structural changes in the economy. Thus the transition from the stage of concentration to this of suburbanization is associated with industrialization, and the transition to the third stage - déconcentration - is related with the rapid growth of employment in the non-industrial sphere. Secondly, a suburbanization of economic activities can be distinguished. It applies in the first place to the building and iron- working industry, transports, engineering and chemical works. These are polluting and requiring extensive areas. This suburbanization of industry is caused by the following factors: rising demand for land from firms ; worsening of transport

tions in the inner cities ; demand for lower land costs and taxation levels in suburbs ; rapid growth of road transports; state policies regulating the growth of large cities ; migration of the labour force to the suburban zones. Scientific and educational activities are also transferred from the centre to the suburbs.

The third important aspect of suburbanization applies to the population. In the suburbs two opposite flows of population meet ; one is centripetal, coming from non- metropolitan regions, the other is centrifugal, coming from the central city. The reasons for the migration to the suburbs are as follows : declining living standards in large cities (overcrowding, slow housing renewal, environmental problems, etc.); growth of motorization of the population, development of communications (telephone, telex, fax, computer) ; intensifying decentralization of working places ; lower land prices in the suburbs ; state support for the intensification of real estate development in the suburbs. The above-mentioned factors and reasons for suburbanization are altered in the Soviet cities. Let us explore them, by taking for example the largest one - Moscow.

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Out of the Centre

Savvino-storozhevsky monastery and museum.

Zvenigorod's most famous sight is the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, which was founded in 1398 by the monk Savva from the Troitse-Sergieva Lavra, at the invitation and with the support of Prince Yury Dmitrievich of Zvenigorod. Savva was later canonised as St Sabbas (Savva) of Storozhev. The monastery late flourished under the reign of Tsar Alexis, who chose the monastery as his family church and often went on pilgrimage there and made lots of donations to it. Most of the monastery’s buildings date from this time. The monastery is heavily fortified with thick walls and six towers, the most impressive of which is the Krasny Tower which also serves as the eastern entrance. The monastery was closed in 1918 and only reopened in 1995. In 1998 Patriarch Alexius II took part in a service to return the relics of St Sabbas to the monastery. Today the monastery has the status of a stauropegic monastery, which is second in status to a lavra. In addition to being a working monastery, it also holds the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum.

Belfry and Neighbouring Churches

Located near the main entrance is the monastery's belfry which is perhaps the calling card of the monastery due to its uniqueness. It was built in the 1650s and the St Sergius of Radonezh’s Church was opened on the middle tier in the mid-17th century, although it was originally dedicated to the Trinity. The belfry's 35-tonne Great Bladgovestny Bell fell in 1941 and was only restored and returned in 2003. Attached to the belfry is a large refectory and the Transfiguration Church, both of which were built on the orders of Tsar Alexis in the 1650s.  

To the left of the belfry is another, smaller, refectory which is attached to the Trinity Gate-Church, which was also constructed in the 1650s on the orders of Tsar Alexis who made it his own family church. The church is elaborately decorated with colourful trims and underneath the archway is a beautiful 19th century fresco.

Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is the oldest building in the monastery and among the oldest buildings in the Moscow Region. It was built between 1404 and 1405 during the lifetime of St Sabbas and using the funds of Prince Yury of Zvenigorod. The white-stone cathedral is a standard four-pillar design with a single golden dome. After the death of St Sabbas he was interred in the cathedral and a new altar dedicated to him was added.

Under the reign of Tsar Alexis the cathedral was decorated with frescoes by Stepan Ryazanets, some of which remain today. Tsar Alexis also presented the cathedral with a five-tier iconostasis, the top row of icons have been preserved.

Tsaritsa's Chambers

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is located between the Tsaritsa's Chambers of the left and the Palace of Tsar Alexis on the right. The Tsaritsa's Chambers were built in the mid-17th century for the wife of Tsar Alexey - Tsaritsa Maria Ilinichna Miloskavskaya. The design of the building is influenced by the ancient Russian architectural style. Is prettier than the Tsar's chambers opposite, being red in colour with elaborately decorated window frames and entrance.

At present the Tsaritsa's Chambers houses the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum. Among its displays is an accurate recreation of the interior of a noble lady's chambers including furniture, decorations and a decorated tiled oven, and an exhibition on the history of Zvenigorod and the monastery.

Palace of Tsar Alexis

The Palace of Tsar Alexis was built in the 1650s and is now one of the best surviving examples of non-religious architecture of that era. It was built especially for Tsar Alexis who often visited the monastery on religious pilgrimages. Its most striking feature is its pretty row of nine chimney spouts which resemble towers.

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