Archinect - News

Fallingwater gets an offsetting new upgrade

2022-05-27T16:22:00-04:00

Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic 87-year-old Fallingwater historic site is getting a very necessary modern upgrade according to a press release issued last month by Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the organization responsible for its stewardship.

In order to supplement sustainability goals tied to the home’s current preservation needs, Fallingwater and the surrounding Bear Run Nature Reserve will now offset a full 100% of the structure’s energy use via a network of 540 individual 5 x 3-foot bifacial solar panels said to produce 254,880 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity a year. The Conservancy says their installation will offset the overall usage of the broader site by 25% annually.

Image courtesy Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC).

“In designing Fallingwater, Wright sought to create a harmonious relationship between architecture and nature. He was inspired by the natural features of the woodland landscape for the house’s colors, materials and design motifs, and oriented the buildi...

Eight Frank Lloyd Wright works recognized by UNESCO

2019-07-08T10:45:00-04:00

Eight buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, including the Prairie style masterpiece of the Robie House in Chicago and the bold concrete structure of Unity Temple in Oak Park, were named Sunday to the United Nations’ list of the world’s most significant cultural and natural sites.

As architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune Blair Kamin writes, American Modernism is finally getting its due, at least, in the eyes of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which has named a collection of Frank Lloyd Wright-designed structures to its World Heritage Sites list.

According to Kamin, “the Wright structures are the first works of U.S. modern architecture to make the prestigious list.”

The highlighted works include:

Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois (1909).
The Frederick C. Robie House in Chicago (1910).
The Taliesin complex in Spring Green, Wisconsin (begun in 1911).
The Hollyhock House in Los Angeles (1921).
Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania (1939).
The Jacobs House in Madison, Wisconsin (1937)
The Taliesin West complex in Scottsdale, Arizona (begun in 1938).
The Guggenheim Museum in New York City (1959).

1970s Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater lookalike asks $3.5M in Greenwich, CT

2017-03-28T13:28:00-04:00

This remarkable custom-built, privately commissioned modern house with its cantilevered design, walls of windows, hand-cut Tennessee limestone walls, rock gardens and rooftop terraces can actually be yours, right now, for $3.5 million.

It's safe to say local architect Dimitri Bulazel was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic Fallingwater house when designing this Greenwich, Connecticut home in the 1970s.

Like Wright's 1935 architectural masterpiece, it has a cantilevered design set in the woods and incorporates aspects of the outdoors throughout the interior.

Fallingwater Institute gains 4 spartan yet beautiful dwellings by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

2017-02-09T18:46:00-05:00

The Fallingwater Institute, which is located on the High Meadow farm next to the iconic Frank Lloyd Wright home, is adding four new "modest wood portals" to its 1960s era teaching facilities. The new dwellings, designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, are created both to extend from the existing High Meadow structure while giving the Institute's summer residency students a spare, yet beautiful place, to work and live.

"The building's main entry welcomes visitors into a central screened porch, which joins the new architecture to an existing cabin and serves as the outdoor gathering and dining space," Bill James, project architect from Bohlin Cywinski Jackson's Pittsburgh office, notes in a press release. "A horizontal screen, made of Norway Spruce harvested and milled on site, extends from the main cabin and continues along the walkway leading to the dwellings."

Fallingwater accepting applications for residency programs

2012-02-23T16:14:00-05:00

Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural masterpiece, is accepting applications for summer 2012 onsite residency programs for students and educators. The one-week programs will include sessions for high school students at two different skill levels, and one program for K-12 teachers.

Fallingwater gets interactive

2011-12-21T19:03:31-05:00

Have you visited Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater? Not all of us have, but there's a new app available that gives you the next best thing. planet architecture, a production company that has been publishing videos and interactive tours for many years, has just added Fallingwater to their relatively new library of app releases.

I've been quite impressed with it after playing with the app for the last couple days. It provides a surprisingly comprehensive collection of drawings, photographs, videos and 360° panoramic views of the iconic house, all accessible from an architect-friendly navigation of floorplans and siteplans.

The iPad app will set you back $9.99, which is relatively pricey in the app world, but a great deal considering the quality of the content and the experience. The iPhone app is $4.99, and currently on sale for $0.99 for the next few days.

We have some free copies (in the form of promo codes) available to the first requests in the comments below. The catch - ...

Is Fallingwater Modern?

2011-08-26T16:05:20-04:00

Fallingwater was as handmade as any of the early Modern experimental structures that, while earnestly seeking the hallowed label of prefabrication, were largely handmade, with lumpy (handcrafted!) white stucco that was smooth only if you were two miles away. Like finally seeing a real Mondrian, with all of its beautiful “imperfections,” much of building today still remains “handmade” even when it means the final connections that make a building sing.

Author, preservationist and historian Barbara Lamprecht takes on an earlier WSJ article called, "What's So Great About Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater?" Read her response to second question in the article: Is Fallingwater a work of modernism?