fallingwater
by frank lloyd wright (1936)
you would think that since i grew up only a couple hours away from fallingwater, with parents who met working at an architecture firm, i would’ve gone there as a child on a family vacation at some point. you would be wrong. but to make up for this, i have now gone to fallingwater twice and plan to keep going back. my first fallingwater trip was when i was just starting to dip my toes into architecture. people always ask me how i got into architecture, so here’s a (kind of) quick backstory on how that happened…
during the lockdown part of the pandemic, i got really into interiors and furniture, specifically vintage furniture. i wanted to replace all of my ikea starter furniture with quality pieces so i dove in head first. i bought a couch from a guy in germany through whatsapp. i made my boyfriend at the time drive 10 hours round trip with me to pick up a chair. i was coordinating with uShip carriers like it was my job. i was crying when a joe colombo boby trolley i bought on etsy arrived from australia shattered to pieces.
eventually, i was running out of furniture to buy and entering a new phase in my life where i was planning to move back to ohio. i became determined to buy a house, partly due to my discovery of accounts like savemidmod. somewhere around this time, i also found out that there’s a frank lloyd wright house in willoughby, ohio that you can stay at. i went there for a weekend as a gift to myself for my 29th birthday. a week later, i found the most gorgeous house for sale in the exact location i wanted to move to. and a week after that, i was a homeowner.
this combination of events, plus a trip to los angeles where i was given a personal tour of neutra’s reunion house, turned me into a full blown architecture lover. i also have my parents to thank for planting the seeds at such a young age. they won a contest for designing the best kid’s room where they designed and built most of the furniture, like the bed below. i was in middle school looking at copies of dwell and atomic ranch magazine. it has always been a part of my life in some way.
so, it felt fitting that the first trip i took to fallingwater was with my dad and his girlfriend. they gifted me the trip out there for my 30th birthday, my second frank lloyd wright related birthday in a row. my birthday is in june but we went in october because i wanted to see it in the fall foliage. the leaves weren’t fully turned by then, but it was still the most perfect fall day.
there are different tiers of tours you can take at fallingwater. the first tour i took was the $39 guided architectural tour. this tour takes you throughout the entire house and guest house and gives you full grounds access, but you are only allowed to take interior photos of the living room, dining room, and kitchen. this annoyed me at first, but the more i think about it, the more i’m conflicted about it.
my favorite thing about seeing fallingwater for the first time was that there were so many parts of it i had never seen photos of before. in my farnsworth house post, i said seeing the bathrooms at fallingwater was a transcendent experience for me. and it really was, i had no idea they looked like that! would it have been as special if i had seen photos of them beforehand? maybe not. but you’re here because you want to see photos, so here i am showing you photos.
i also had no idea what the kitchen looked like and now i’m so in love with a yellow kitchen. those metal cabinets are to die for. i once came across an entire kitchen’s worth of pink metal cabinets on facebook marketplace and still regret not getting them.
the second time around, i went on the $89 in-depth tour. this tour is a bit longer, it’s 90 minutes compared to the 60 minute $39 tour, and you are allowed to take interior photos throughout the entire house. since i had already experienced the entire house, i dedicated my second time around to taking as many photos as i could. some of the spaces/rooms are quite hard to capture though. there are lots of tight hallways and tiny rooms, which is really difficult to nicely frame when you’re in there with 10 other people.
looking back through the photos i took of the bathrooms has me thinking maybe i’ve never seen any photos of them because they are so hard to get photos of. mine all kind of suck, but you’re not allowed to go into the bathrooms, so i did my best. now if you go on the tour, you will be pleasantly surprised at how much better they are in person.
but the cork tiles !!!!!!!!! i need cork tiled bathrooms !!!
and this window planter situation… breathtakingly beautiful. imagine sitting here in the morning doing your makeup or skincare. i can’t think of a more perfect way to start the day.
another one of my favorite parts of fallingwater is the guest house and the canopy that covers the walkway up to the guest house. the canopy has been under construction both times i’ve been, so i don’t have any good photos of it. you will just have to go experience it yourself. but heads up if you are planning on doing that, a lot of the property is undergoing restoration right now. expect to see lots of scaffolding if you go for a tour. i’m not sure how long the construction will be going on for but you can read about what all they’re doing on their website.
one thing that really blew my mind when i first started learning about architecture is that a lot of buildings/houses people associated with “mid-century modern,” a phrase usually associated with the 50s-60s, were actually built in the 30s or 40s. maybe that’s dumb to admit, but someone designing and building a house like this in the 30s is just so amazing to me. like this house is almost 100 years old! i hope it’s around for another 100 years. it is such a special place, i will truly never get sick of going there.
there’s a few other frank lloyd wright houses in the area if you want to fully commit while you’re in town. on my first trip, i went to kentuck knob, which is about a 10 minute drive from fallingwater. it’s a very beautiful house atop a mountain with an incredible view of the laurel highlands.
on my second trip, i did the wright collection house tour at polymath park. this tour includes FLW’s duncan house and mäntylä. they were both relocated to polymath park and hearing the guide talk about the logistics of moving two entire houses across multiple states was so interesting. there are also two other houses on the property, designed by FLW student peter berndtson. and you can stay overnight at all of these houses. they were not my favorite FLW houses i’ve seen but did i still love touring them? yes, of course.
my only other pennsylvania recommendations are the carnegie museum of art and the national aviary, if you come in through pittsburgh. i could’ve spent an entire day at that art museum. they have an incredible collection, including the most on-brand exhibition called extraordinary ordinary things, featuring some of my favorite pieces of furniture and home decor. i was genuinely (and embarrassingly) gasping at seeing some of these pieces in person for the first time.
the national aviary isn’t really on theme, but my hobby before architecture was (and still sometimes is) birdwatching. so, i will always accept a chance to look at beautiful birds. and you should too. they have a selection of animal encounters you can pay extra to do and i’m dying to do the owl one.
apologies again for not keeping up with my previously promised positing schedule. i am doing the best i can with the current state of my mind/body, which i would compare to that of a sick victorian child. thank you for sticking around. there will always be more beautiful architecture to come, i promise.
xoxo
going on a trip soon to falling water and have to choose between kentuck knob and the collection house tours, if you have any advice on choosing <3
I was hoping you'd be posting more (I can understand why not, look at the world, who can even get up to start their day in this madness) But you should really consider a grant or funding to be touring and staying in houses like this. Several years ago I got a grant for someone to do exactly that, but throughout Scandanavia + Finland (it turned out fantastic) I'm sure at least one granting body in the USA would do that for you.