130+ photographs of Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece Fallingwater

We’ve featured a variety of buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright here at Open Culture, from his personal home, Taliesin Studio and the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, to a gas station and dog kennel. But if there is any single structure that explains his enduring reputation as a genius in American architecture, perhaps it is the A genius of American architecture, it has to be the house called Fallingwater.

It was designed in 1935 for Pittsburgh department store magnate Edgar J. Kaufman and his wife Lillian, and it is located above an active waterfall—rather than below it as Kaufman originally requested, to name just a few of the disagreements that arose between client and architect throughout the process.

In the event, Wright had his way with regards to siting the house on the site, as with so much else about the project—all the better for its place in architectural history, which has risen only 85 years since its completion. since.

Inspired by Kaufman’s love of the outdoors, as well as his own appreciation for Japanese architecture, Wright used techniques to integrate Fallingwater’s spaces with each other, as well as with the surrounding nature. time The magazine wasted no time in announcing the result of Wright’s “most beautiful work”; More recently, it has received high praise from major Japanese architect such as Tadao Ando.

When he visited Fallingwater, Ando experienced first-hand a use of space similar to that he knew from the built environment back home, as well as how the house lets in the sounds of nature. Although such a pilgrimage can greatly increase one’s appreciation of a home, there is rarely a viewer who is not dazzled by the photographs alone.

As clever as he was in advertising as he was in architecture, Wright knew that Fallingwater had to photograph well, a quality on clear display in this archive of 137 high-resolution images at the Library of Congress. Through it, you can download color and black-and-white photographs of the house’s exterior and interior as well as its plans, which – so the story goes – were originally drawn by Wright in just two hours after months of inaction. Thus Fallingwater represents not only tangible proof of once-impudent architectural concepts, but also vindication for procrastinators everywhere.

Related content:

An animated tour of Fallingwater, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s finest creations

12 Famous Frank Lloyd Wright Homes Offering Virtual Tours: Hollyhock House, Taliesin West, Fallingwater and More

What it’s like to work in Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous office building

What Frank Lloyd Wright’s unusual windows tell us about his architectural genius

Bringing unrealized projects of Frank Lloyd Wright to life through 3D digital reconstructions

1,300 photographs of iconic American modern homes are now available online, courtesy of the University of Southern California

Based in Seoul, Colin MaRashal writes and broadcastsTS on cities, language and culture. His projects include the Substack newsletter books about cities, the book The Stateless City: A Stroll Through Los Angeles in the Twenty-First Century And video series The city in the cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @collinemarshall Or on Facebook.