- Fallingwater -
Mill Run, Pennsylvania
This is one of the better-known creations of the renowned architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. Straddling a beautiful cascade, "Fallingwater" is considered to be the most famous private home in the world. The house was built in the late 1930's for Edgar and Liliane Kaufmann, owners of the popular Kaufmann's Department Store in Pittsburgh.
Amazingly, despite the presence of many dozens of other visitors at the time, I managed to capture the image above when none of the balconies were full of people. The place looks deserted, but I can assure you that it wasn't - although very much off the beaten path, Fallingwater is a popular destination. You can walk the grounds freely, but entering the home requires a tour ticket. Interior photography isn't allowed, so I can only show you what it looks like from the outside.
The falls were running with some strength during my visit, due to recent rains, and the home is everywhere filled with the pleasant background hiss of the nearby cascades. A set of stairs, clearly visible in these photos, leads to a platform directly above the river's surface, for no other purpose than dipping one's toes in the water on a hot day.
In the interest of visually connecting the home to its surroundings, the walls were built with stone quarried directly from the homesite; blocks of unequal size and shape were stacked to achieve a more natural, random variation and texture:
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