PA & NY 2023: Frank Lloyd Wright - Fallingwater / Kentuck Knob

Following two days in Polymath Park that my husband Rich and I spent with our friends Glen and Christiane, our exploration of Frank Lloyd Wright homes in south-west Pennsylvania continued with a visit to his most famous work.  Fallingwater, a name aptly coined by Wright  because it is built partially over an active waterfall on Bear Run River that flows beneath the house, has been designated a National Historic Landmark as well as a World Heritage Site.  This property is so iconic that there have been numerous parodies of its unique shape and form, made of a variety of materials including gingerbread, Lego, watermelon, and cans/plastic bottles. The building complex consists of a three-storied cantilevered main house that is 9300 square feet of which 4400 square feet are dedicated to open-air terraces, and a 4990 square foot guest house (including 1950 sq ft of terrace) with a private swimming pool that is connected to the main house by a canopied walkway.  On the other side of the guest house is a huge carport with room for 3 vehicles.

Wright was commissioned in 1935 by Pittsburgh businessman Edgar J. Kaufmann to design a weekend retreat for his family.  Originally named the Kaufmann House, Fallingwater is built on a property spanning 1500 acres that now includes a Visitor’s Centre, gift shop, art gallery, educational centre and several hiking trails with lookouts and viewpoints.  After walking along one of the trails to catch a glimpse of the house and cascading waterfalls from a distance, we made our way to the Visitor’s Centre to await the start of our guided tour.

Nestled in a forested area surrounded by mature trees, rocks and water, the shape of Fallingwater with its long, horizontal cascading terraces, mirror the waterfall flowing into a stream.  The structure “harmonizes with its natural surroundings”.  The exterior materials of concrete, rough stone, wood and steel are implemented in a way to organically blend in with the environment.  The colour palette of the building was limited to light ochre for the concrete and Wright’s signature Cherokee red for the steel and metal framing on doors and windows.

The ground floor consists almost entirely of one enormous open space with no interior load-bearing beams, expansive windows, and walls and pillars made from Pottsville sandstone that was sourced from the quarry on the property.  Known as the “Grand Room” the central feature is a stone fireplace with a gigantic circular Cherokee red kettle which can swing around to sit above the flames.  The Kaufmanns used it for heating up cider during the large parties that they would hold in this grand space.  On one side of the hearth is the space usually designated as the living “room” while the dining area is on the other side with the dining table, hutches and shelving built into the stone walls.  A portrait of Edgar Kaufmann Sr. hangs on a wall adjacent to the dining table.  Surprisingly the floors in Fallingwater are not made from the Cherokee red that we saw in the Usonian homes in Polymath.  I guess that was the “cheaper” version of flooring for the economy homes.  Here, the floors are interlocking flagstone slabs that give the impression of stones found in a stream, further integrating the interior with the exterior surroundings.

Multiple built-in seating areas are situated against the walls below large, frameless windows, often featuring furniture designed by Wright.  Much of the seating is extremely low to the floor, apparently to provide better views of the nature outside.  As always, Wright opted for form over function as I can imagine how hard it was on the knees to get in and out of these chairs and sofas.  Other areas form small “den” or “library” spaces with built-in desks and bookshelves.  This massive space takes the term “open-concept” to the extreme.  Glass doors lead out to multiple terraces that overlook the rocks and rushing water below.  On the longest and largest terrace sits a sculpture of a Buddha head.  One can imagine that there would be outdoor loungers and other patio furniture back in the day.  A unique feature of the Grand Room is a hatch with a retractable roof that opens up to stairs leading down to the river that runs underneath the building.  Opening the hatch allows natural air conditioning to flow into the room.  This was another way that Wright brought nature right into the house.  The grand room was the only indoor space that we were allowed to take photos during our tour, so the remaining photos are extracted from videos found on the internet.

Other than the Grand Room (which would be 5 or 6 rooms in any other house), the ground floor also contains the kitchen where the Cherokee red floor is finally found.  There are steel cabinets on the walls, a laminate work-top/island and modern appliances for the time including a really cool-looking AGA Swedish range Cooker, Frigidaire refrigerator and KitchenAid dishwasher.  Made for supporting the large parties that the Kaufmanns held, the kitchen is much more spacious and brighter than the ones we saw in Polymath.

Stairs leading to the second floor reveal a master bedroom with access to a huge terrace that is cantilevered over the ground floor terrace and contains an herb garden.  A slightly smaller guest bedroom has what looks like a wooden headboard and nightstand built into the stone wall.  Although there does not seem to be a terrace attached to the guest bedroom, there is still plenty of natural light from the large panes of windows against one wall and smaller clerestory windows above the bed.  From the second floor, a 17-foot-long bridge illuminated by skylights connects the main house to the guest house from the inside.  There is another outdoor passageway which we would see later.

The staircase leading to the third floor is unique in that one wall is lined with bookshelves filled with books and knickknacks.  The third floor has a much smaller footprint than the other two floors and much of it is used for a huge terrace that is accessed from a long gallery at the top of the stairs.  At the east end of the gallery, a small alcove was converted into a bedroom for Edgar Jr. so that he could enjoy the morning sun.  The space has low ceilings of about 6.5ft to “guide the eye horizontally towards the outside view”.  At the other end of the gallery is a study where you can see great examples of Wright’s innovatively designed “corner-turning” windows that are found throughout the house but especially in the west tower that runs from vertically along all three floors.  The windows are made from mitered glass without mullions (the vertical bar between panes) and are surrounded by steel frames.  When both panes are cranked open swinging to the left and right, it is like the corner of the building disappears, again integrating the interior with the exterior, letting in air as well as natural sounds from the river below.  Wright had designed a screen door to swing open next to the bank of windows, but Kaufmann wanted a longer desk.  Rather than change his design, Wright cut out a round piece of wood from the desk to make way for the path of the door.

For the last part of our guided tour, we walked along the outdoor canopied walkway to reach the Guest House, which is a standalone, self-contained structure with a beautiful living room, bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen.  From the bedroom is access to a huge terrace with an above-ground private plunge pool.  This guest house is larger and more luxurious than most people’s principal residences.

We were shown two final features of Fallingwater at the end of our tour.  The first was a foot-washing basin with a flow of trickling water that can be found in a low, cave-like passageway near one of the entrances.  This allowed shoes to be cleaned and hands to be washed after a hike on the trails before entering the house.  Finally we were shown the massive car ports which were designed with the same concrete and stone aesthetics as the rest of the house, thus blending in perfectly with the building as a whole.  Despite hating the idea of garages, this was Wright’s concession for providing an area to shelter vehicles.

The next day, Rich and I toured one final Frank Lloyd Wright designed house, which was another Usonian home like the ones we saw in Polymath Park.  Wright designed and completed construction on Kentuck Knob in 1956 for the Hagan family, owners of the Hagan Ice Cream Company at a cost of $96,000.  Kentuck Knob was built on 80 acres of land in the Laurel Highlands with the house sitting on the crest or “knob” of a hill, about 2050 feet above sea level.  After living there for 30 years, in 1986, the Hagens sold the house and property for $600,000 to Lord Palumbo, a property developer, art collector and member British House of Lords.  Lord and Lady Palumbo filled the house and grounds with art from around the world and created an outdoor sculpture garden with paths leading through the woods and around a pond.

The Palumbos opened the house and property for public tours starting in 1996 to help with the upkeep and preservation of the architectural gem which was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2000.  A Visitors' Centre/Gift shop were built to support this endeavour and was the starting point for guided tours.  We spotted some interesting art works on the path leading from the parking lot to the Visitors' Centre including several very unique and impressive bird houses.  While waiting for our tour to start, we spent some time in the gift shop and loved so many things there. We ended up buying 6 placemats and a couple of trivets with Wrights designs printed on them.  I regret not buying one of the table runners that would have looked really nice over our black tablecloth.

Kentuck Knob is a one-story, 2200 square foot dwelling with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  It was built from materials local to the area including native sandstone and Tidewater Red Cypress.  It has a hexagonal stone core, cantilevered overhangs, extensive use of glass throughout, a coppered roof and a 3-vehicle carport, all designed to blend seamlessly with its natural surroundings.  Even from the outside, we could see the unique, intricate patterns cut into the red cypress frames that covered the clerestory windows found around the main part of the house.  We would get a better look at them once we entered.  Wright signed his name on a red plaque that is imbedded in a stone wall at the front of the home to indicate that he designed it.  Unfortunately, photography was not allowed at all inside the house, so I found some images on postcards and a souvenir book from the gift shop that helped me remember what we saw.

Kentuck Knob has a unique open design with almost no 90-degree angles adjoining any walls.  Like the other Usonian homes that we visited in Polymath Park, it has narrow hallways with low ceilings leading to big open spaces with high ceilings, again following Wright's compress and release philosophy.  In the Grand Room, which is the central living space, built-in furniture and bookcases line the walls and large glass panes including a glass door lead out to a long covered terrace.  We got a better view of the hexagonal shapes that have been hand-cut into cypress wood which covers the windows high up on the walls above the built-in wall units.  They are positioned high in order to allow the Northern light to flow into the space, creating patterns of shadow and light as the sun moves across the sky.  This cut-out pattern continues across several semi-enclosed spaces and even into the bedrooms.

Throughout the kitchen, dining area and terrace are hexagonal shaped skylights that allow you to look up into the sky and also reflect hexagonal light beams and shadows onto the floor.  The current dining table on display is made from oak and was custom-designed by George Nakashima to replace a simpler table originally designed by Wright.  As Mrs. Hagen loved to cook, her kitchen was given more thought than in other Wright homes.  It features 14-foot stone walls forming a hexagonal cell with a honeycomb shaped glassed-in skylight.

Following our tour of the house, we picked up the map that allowed us to take a self-guided tour of the sculpture meadow along the Woodland Trail on the property of Kentuck Knob.  We saw many quirky pieces including a wolf sculpture by an unknown artist, Jim Dine’s “The Plant Becomes a Fan” (1974) which feature a series of cast aluminum fans, a graffiti scribbled section of the Berlin wall acquired in 1990 and a giant tortoise by a pond created by Andy Goldsworthy.

Towards the end of our tour, we were led out to a clearing where we had a stunning panoramic view of the surrounding hillside.  Rich and I returned to this site after we toured the sculpture garden so that we could sit on the bench  and enjoy the view in solitude, just as the Hagens used to do.  As we returned back to our car to leave Kentuck Knob, we saw two more pieces of “functional art” which were a red 1935 London phone booth and an early 20th century Parisian cast iron “pissoire” or public toilet.  Although Kentuck Knob is not as well known as Fallingwater, it is definitely worth a visit not only for the unique decorative features in the house but also the beautiful grounds.