that sle, but with a humani oen lacking in the
buildings it produced. It was all Wright: singular,
suited to his client, and of both the times and the
spirit of the place.
Fallingwater offers a contrast of experiences and
juxtapositions—light and dark, danger and safe,
smooth concrete and rough stone—that give it a
wonderful richness. Passing through the front
door, which is hidden between two walls, is a bit
like entering a cave, sheltered and safe, but glance
diagonally to the opposite end of the room and the
outstretched terrace beyond and it's open and bright.
e exposure conveys a sense of danger that one has
when looking at Fallingwater from a distance, its
serrated arrangement appearing unanchored.
Like the Kaufmanns, one expects to see the waterfall, but doesn't, not for
a long time, by design. "Wright was really smart in his sense that we all
have a final impression of something—so he saved it for the very end, so
that the waterfall would be the final memory one has of the house and
not overshadow the experience of it," Waggoner explains. "Because when
you go through the house, it is very intimate, like a meander through the
woods. You go around corners and things open up and close down. It's
dark and light. You walk the terraces. en, when you go down to see the
actual view of the waterfall, you think, this is just incredible, because
you have come to understand the house. So he knew exactly what he was
doing when he designed it."
Fallingwater reestablished Wright's place in architecture, exactly as
he hoped. He appeared on the cover of TIME Magazine with the house
behind him and, at age 67, embarked on the most prolific period of his
career, completing the Johnson Wax Building, the Guggenheim and
many more buildings. Mostly, though, Fallingwater exemplified what
Wright spent his entire career trying to create: a distinctly American
architecture. It has all the features of this vernacular—a connection
to the setting in a way that blends the two together; an open plan;
the geometrizing of elements; a play with interior volume; and uni
through a limited palette of materials—to touch something deep within
us that Wright understood intuitively: the desire to reclaim our place in
the natural world.
"at's what Fallingwater does for us," Waggoner says. "It's the physical
demonstration of what freedom is about. It teaches and amazes. I think
that's the testament of a masterpiece." fallingwater.org
