Fallingwater

I first visited Fallingwater I don't know exactly when--something like college or soon after? Who did I go with? I don't remember at all!

Anyway, it was one of my first experiences with great art and architecture, and I was moved. 

I've been wanted to take Francisco, so we went on the way back to our some lodgings in PA. It was so interesting to go back--to see it through new eyes--and to realize what I think I loved about it as a young person. 

Above--walk from the living room down to the creek. 

I love the windows with no break in your view in the corners. 

Above--another view of the way from the living room to the creek. 

Above: The view from the inside of the windows that run the whole course of the home, top to bottom. If you open them, then your view is unbroken at the corner, too. 

Above: One of the many terraces. 

Ground to sky windows.

Covered walkway to the guest house. 

There were rhododendrons everywhere. Sadly, almost all were past their bloom--next time aim for June!

In addition to the creek with the waterfall, there is a pool, and a plunge pool. The theme is water. 

You are greeted by two things when you first approach the house--a tiny little trickle of waterfall and a rhododendron cutting. 

There are places (below the fireplace and one other place at least) where the mountain comes into the house--the regular existing rocks enter into the construction. At one of these points a mountain spring trickles in and then out of the house. 

Okay, so overall this time I was less enamored than the first time. I was more bothered by the concrete and its color. I still think it is super cool: The cantilevering everywhere--in the house itself, in the furniture, in the shelves--all echo the natural cantilevering of the waterfall, with the natural little caves behind it. Do I love the cantilevering? No--besides being a big structural problem, I like to feel that things are being held up, architecturally speaking. 

In fact, the cantilevering means you never see the falls from the house (and if I look down trying to see the falls, I get dizzy). But you do hear water everywhere--it is loud and lovely. The first floor flooring is rocks made to look shiny like they are covered in water. 

Why did I love it some 20 years ago? It is a Pennsylvania creek! A Pennsylvania creek covered in architecture and art. It's the combination of lots of different things that I love--rural beauty and cultivation. (There's a Diego Rivera, for instance, stuck in a back room. The place is packed with amazing glassware, sculptures, and just adorable little water carafes at every bedside.)

Above: Frank Lloyd Wright plans for a chapel for the site, which was never built. 

When we got back to Nana and Papa's Stearns and her youngest were here waiting for us!