It sounds quite odd to tell someone that we went to view someone’s ‘summer house’ but it was indeed a pleasant opportunity to visit Frank Llyod Wright’s (FLW) Fallingwater, located at Bear Run, close to Pittsburgh. The drive from DC to Pittsburgh was most scenic and strangely, the colour of the roads added a picturesque view to the journey.
The weather could not have been better than what we had and thus made it a perfect day out. Considering it was the first day of the opening of the house since winter - March 15 - we wanted to book the tickets online but that involved a service charge per ticket as well as specifying the time of the tour. Since we only had an approximate time of arrival, we preferred to get the tickets on reaching there. However, when we got there, we found out that online timing was only to get an estimate of the visitors for that day. So it did not really matter for what time you purchased the tickets so long as one reaches the same day.
We took a regular tour of the house that was built for Edgar J. Kaufmann (well-known businessman) by FLW. This mainly involved a tour of the various rooms, view of its original furnishings, fine art, books, artifacts, paintings and unique collection of artistic works. Through this, one could gauge the lifestyle of the family. It was interesting to not that although the house was built way back in 1939, it was designed in a style, contemporary of today’s age and time. Taking cognizance of the surrounding landscape, the house was built in a cantilever structure lining with the river and most beautifully, allowing the river to flow from ‘under’ the house.
One could take a glance at this through the stairs that run down the riverbed (or should I say that the stairs rise up the flowing river)! This seemed to fit most naturally into the ambience of the house with the sound of the waterfall as being the highlight of my tour around the house. Another favourite aspect of the excursion was how the house fit perfectly within the landscape to allow for the flora and fauna blend into the construction as if for the viewer to believe that it has always belonged there!
