Customer Reviews:
A Great Book!.......2007-01-11
This is a huge heavy duty book filled with all kinds pictures and information about another of FLW's masterpieces. A great gift!
AWESOME!..........2000-08-23
Fallingwater, in and of itself, is a name that commands awe and respect. This book epitomizes that notion.
Simply, this is it. This is the be all, end all of texts on this masterpiece by the late F.L.W.
I have been an admirer of F.L.W. since I was in the fifth grade, and had to do a report on earthquakes and buildings. Living in S.F., I guess this was a hot topic. But, in a showing (foreshadowing?) of extremely good taste---if I do say so myself, I chose F.L.W. and the TransAmerica building. For those of you out of the loop, that's the "pyramid" building you see when looking at (virtually every) snapshot(s) of the S.F. skyline. I hadn't yet discovered Fallingwater, but I would eventually be shown the way...
This is such an incredibly beautiful house. Honestly, I could not imagine the blessing of owning that house and living there. This text, however, sets it all out.
EXCELLENT photos, both inside and out....in different seasons as well.
VERY GOOD text and dialogue. Provides a great understanding of the dream, planning, undertaking, and completion of this masterpiece.
This is an incredibly text. I cannot urge you enough to purchase this one. In short, your collection is not complete without it.
Open this book, and dream....
A great book on a Great Building.......2000-02-29
What first draws one to this book is the wonderful new photographs presented. This is also what I keep going back to see after reading the text. The perspective of many of the downstream shots is not exaggerated as are the older black and white ones taken in the 1930's although when I visited the house I was unable to get the same view or position. They must have been taken with a special camera. I appreciate the helicopter photos as it really shows the site, a deep ravine. The house always seemed to be up on a promontory but is set deep into the forest. The lighting on the interior is a little misleading when the shadows and light direction are altered. These photos overall are the most naturalistic that I have seen and to see all the seasons represented makes me want to goback for the others. It looks as if the insect screens were removed for most of the photos which gave the house a cleaner, more modern appearance than in person. I only wish the breaker pages, the ones with the large green background, were larger although I believe I have seen the winter view on a recent calendar by the same photographer, Heinz, great work on his part. I always wish there were more books like this on great American buildings, especially on the photogenic ones by Wright.
Nice pictures; cute anecdotes; poor analysis; no criticism.......1999-03-27
I received the book as a gift, then visited Fallingwater, then re-read the book. It's not very good. The pictures are nice, but redundant and not comprehensive. Examples: no pictures of second floor guest room and bath, too many pictures of E.J. Kauffman's "dressing room." Mr. Kauffman, Jr., fondly (and, I would hope, accurately) recollects the brief history, but supplies very little analysis and absolutely no criticism, which is sorely lacking. No book published does justice to the antagonistic surfaces and cave-like interior spaces of the house, nor the terribly confusing bouquet of stairwells springing from the main floor. Nor does the author provide the context supporting the true genius of Wright's three-dimensional composition in the post-cubist age of international style and international turmoil. Lastly, why does the only author who has lived there fail to mention that the house rings with the crashing of the water? It literally sounds like the proverbial "machine for living."
Stunning - blows other Fallingwater books away!.......1999-03-10
This is a classic coffe table book that will endure for decades. It is chock full of color photographs, drawings, layouts and stories from the owner's son. The author was a pupil of Frank Lloyd Wright, his father commissioned several works from the famous man. The book is not about FLW; it does not discuss his other work, or even his contribution to architecture. Yet, it does tell stories. Stories about the house, the building, the site, the construction, the arguements, the leaks, and the repairs. It is a story of archeciture that is organic - one that is growing; one that grows on you.
This is a category killer of a book. It knocks other Fallingwater books out of the ring. It is large and beautifully photgraphed. It is simply and honestly written. And well it does not tell of FLW, those facts are readily available elsewhere.
This is a treasure of a find. A real keeper. One that you can look at again and again
Book Description
Fallingwater Rising is a biography not of a person but of the most famous house of the twentieth century. Scholars and the public have long extolled the house that Frank Lloyd Wright perched over a Pennsylvania waterfall in 1937, but the full story has never been told.
When he got the commission to design the house, Wright was nearing seventy, his youth and his early fame long gone. It was the Depression, and Wright had no work in sight. Into his orbit stepped Edgar J. Kaufmann, a Pittsburgh department-store mogul–“the smartest retailer in America”–and a philanthropist with the burning ambition to build a world-famous work of architecture. It was an unlikely collaboration: the Jewish merchant who had little concern for modern architecture and the brilliant modernist who was leery of Jews. But the two men collaborated to produce an extraordinary building of lasting architectural significance that brought international fame to them both and confirmed Wright’s position as the greatest architect of the twentieth century.
Fallingwater Rising is also an enthralling family drama, involving Kaufmann, his beautiful cousin/wife, Liliane, and their son, Edgar Jr., whose own role in the creation of Fallingwater and its ongoing reputation is central to the story. Involving such key figures of the l930s as Frida Kahlo, Albert Einstein, Henry R. Luce, William Randolph Hearst, Ayn Rand, and Franklin Roosevelt, Fallingwater Rising shows us how E. J. Kaufmann’s house became not just Wright’s masterpiece but a fundamental icon of American life.
One of the pleasures of the book is its rich evocation of the upper-crust society of Pittsburgh–Carnegie, Frick, the Mellons–a society that was socially reactionary but luxury-loving and baronial in its tastes, hobbies, and sexual attitudes (Kaufmann had so many mistresses that his store issued them distinctive charge plates they could use without paying).
Franklin Toker has been studying Fallingwater for eighteen years. No one but he could have given us this compelling saga of the most famous private house in the world and the dramatic personal story of the fascinating people who made and used it.
A major contribution to both architectural and social history.
Customer Reviews:
Regrettably, I shared Mr. Lupp's experience.......2007-05-24
The binding on my paperback copy also fell apart half-way through the book. While I found some of the writing less than crisp and the organization sometimes left me confused as to sequences of events, overall it's a wonderfully detailed history of how a great house came to be. I wish I had read it before I visited Fallingwater; it would have greatly increased my enjoyment of the house.
Hard to put down - twice, already.......2007-02-05
I have now read FALLINGWATER RISING twice, and I think it is one of the most well-written, readable, and engrossing books about any subject. What I like most about it is that even though Fallingwater is an inanimate object, we feel that it is a living thing; this is our emotional response to it. This book makes it clear that people made the building happen. People with all of their strengths, foibles, desires and aspirations. Each of these people come to life on the page, and Toker's delightful spirit of inquiry illuminates the writing and makes it sing.
Architect's Review:.......2006-06-02
I must say that as an architect who has been practicing for over 25 years, I have not read any book quite like this before that reaches so deeply into the creation of a master work such as Fallingwater. I have always "appreciated" FLW work but only recently have more fully understood what he has accomplished and created in built architectural works that to me borders on magical and genius at the same time. The glossy pictures alone only begins to reflect him as the gifted craftsman he represented. Living in Chicago I get to enjoy much of his work all the time. I'm still enjoying the book and must say your work here is amazing and a fitting tribute to an increbible individual and architect. Thanks for the experience. Jack Svaicer
Fallingwater remains mysterious even after this comprehensive book.......2005-09-08
Every "thing" you could ever want to know about Fallingwater is contained in this book -- and then some. It is an enjoyable, insightful book about an extraordinary house. The writing is convincing, intelligent and clear, covering a wide range of complex and contentious topics without ever seeming either simplistic or academic. For my tastes there was too much detail on some peripheral subjects -- such as Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead and the PR campaigns relating to Fallingwater. I didn't really need to be given lists of all the doo dads and art objects that were put on various walls and shelves at one time or another, but some of these matters are easily skimmed over. Despite its encyclopedic scope and thorough research and analysis, the book ironically fails to really get at the essence of the creative process that resulted in Fallingwater -- especially the contributions of EJ Kaufmann. How is it that EJ Kaufmann built Fallingwater and the Palm Springs Nuetra house -- two of the most extraordinary houses of the 20th century? In the end the essential mystery of Fallingwater remains.
One of the best works on Wright's work, but..........2005-07-31
I would give this four stars based on its intellectual content. The reason I only gave it two stars is because the trade paperback, which lists for $25.00, fell apart in my hands before I was halfway through the book. The entire first half popped out of the binding. By the time I finished the text of the second half, it too was on its way to popping out. This is unacceptable.
The book is quite good, telling us more than I at least ever thought to ask about America's most famous private house of the twentieth century. There is a good chapter on Wright, especially the fallow years leading up to this commission; there is also a very interesting chapter on Edgar Kaufmann who commissioned the house; and an interesting chapter on his son who later claimed a much larger role in its creation than Toker thinks correct. The travails of building the house and the work necessary to correct its serious defects years later are all covered. Also covered is the publicity mechanism that made the house famous. I would recommend this to anybody, not just to Wright's fans. And, if you have not been there, make plans to visit Fallingwater; the trip is worth it.
Book Description
A total revision of the standard document on Fallingwater, the boldest, most personal architectural statement of Wright's mature years. Updated with valuable new material from the recently opened Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, the book gives special emphasis to Fallingwater's architectural innovations. "Fascinating. " — The New York Times. 116 illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Mr. Kaufman Builds His Dream House.......2007-03-31
Forget everything you know about building a house--a dream house--and read this book. If you are a Wright fan, then you will relish every page and delight in knowing about how various aspects of the most famous house in the world came to be built.
No doubt you will enjoy knowing that the final work was indeed a collaborative effort between Mr. Wright (who had strong opinions about everything) and Mr. Kaufman who was if anything, one of those ideal clients in the vein of Darwin Martin before him and Hib Johnson soon thereafter. Some of the most celebrated details of the building were Edgar Sr.'s input (i.e. no gold leaf paint on the parapets, routing out the stone and letting the glass simply meld into it). These things help make the house what it is.
The story--it must be true, it has been told by so many and so often--of the house's design springing from the master's hand as Mr. K. was on his short drive to Taliesin, is worth savoring.
The role of the Taliesin apprentice on site as clerk of the works is important to note--Mr. Wright would use this concept again and again for the remainder of his life, to assure that what was built was what he had in mind. In many cases the apprentice became almost adopted-family to the clients and their association became lifelong.
Mr. Hoffmann is to be congratulated again and again for giving us this marvelous record of the building of Fallingwater.
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S FALLINGWATER.......2007-01-12
EXCELLENT HISTORY OF THE BUILDING OF FALLINGWATER. MANY INSIGHTS INTO THE CHARACTER OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT.
complete but black and white pictures.......2001-08-14
This is an historical books about this house but all the pictures are in B & W. And it's so sad for such a masterpiece of frank Lloyd Wright.
The Awful Problems of Turning Genius into Reality.......2001-07-10
This book is one of the best I have seen for describing in detail the challenges of creating one of America's architectural landmarks. Anyone who reads this book will be reminded of Thomas Edison's comment about genius being 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration.
Fallingwater came as a commission after one of the longest dry spells of Frank Lloyd Wright's career. Despite having no work to do, no money, and few prospects, Mr. Wright dawdled with the project while trying to sell his client, Edgar Kaufmann, as many other projects as possible. Contemporary accounts suggest that Wright only began sketching something on paper when Mr. Kaufmann was about to arrive at Taliesin in Wisconsin, where Wright did his work.
Mr. Kaufman was not an easy client. He was the head of a major department store, and was used to getting his own way. Client and architect often clashed, with bent feelings on both sides. Independent "experts" got involved who also added to the controversy, mistakes, and misunderstandings. Mr. Kaufmann deserves credit, though, for sticking with Wright as the costs soared way above the original budget for this most unique house.
Interestingly, the two were brought together by Mr. Kaufmann's son who had come to study with Wright in Taliesin. The book contains a brief introduction by Edgar Kaufmann, Jr. who ultimately gave the home to a local nature conservancy.
Even without the challenges of the human relationships, Fallingwater was a most ambitious commission. In a remote part of the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania, Fallingwater is sited on top of a waterfall. The potential for the water to undermine the house is enormous. Mr. Wright also wanted to keep as many of the original rocks and trees as possible. The site survey was often wrong, and the designs had to be adjusted to reflect the reality. The design also provided other unusual problems, and the first cantilever was built incorrectly due to changes made under Mr. Kaufmann's direction.
The book contains a wealth of maps, letters, summaries of interviews with those who worked on the project, drawings, plans, and photographs of the work in progress in black and white. This detail brings the challenges to life in a very real way.
The fascinating part of this book to me is that Fallingwater's final effects are the opposite of its creation. The home seems to float above the water, like a mirage. It seems to exude tranquility and peace. Yet, its every stage of movement toward becoming a reality was like a Sumo wrestling match with enormous heavyweight egos and ideas colliding at high speed and with little regard for the impact on the other fellow.
As much as I love Fallingwater, I love understanding more about how it was created even more. Anyone who wants to leave a mark of greatness behind should read this book.
After you finish thinking through the implications of Mr. Wright's vision and ways of implementing it, I suggest that you think about your own personal life and work. Where are you lacking in vision? Where are you lacking in the processes to implement worthwhile visions?
Turn your dreams into beautiful realities . . . for everyone!
History book on Fallingwater.......2000-08-02
Of all the books on Fallingwater, this is the best when you want to know about how the house came into being. I have 2 copies of the book, one that accompanies me on all my travelling, and one to keep in my library. I have at least read it 8 to 10 times, and already look forward to the next time. The black and white photography is quite good, although the book would even be better with some color takes. Hoffman did a great job researching on the subject, and reading the book, it occurs that this was no easy task to get everything in order, chronoligically.
Book Description
Considered Frank Lloyd Wright's most sublime integration of architecture and nature, Fallingwater nestled among the rocky woodlands of Pennsylvania is the focal point for every discussion of his inspired siting, use of organic materials, and employment of decorative motifs derived from nature and translated into glass, stone, and wood. Beautiful color interior photography, coupled with black-and-white shots of the dramatic setting, illustrate this new, richly textured tour of this legendary house.
Customer Reviews:
Brick by Brick in Touch with Nature.......2005-07-30
Lynda S. Waggoner presents an alluring collection of photographs and commentary that will interest the architect or anyone who's had an eye for the artistical-architectural renderings of the legendary work of Frank Lloyd Wright. As curator and administrator, Waggoner's first hand accounts of Fallingwater provides the reader with an up-close narrative behind and inside the home with the basic origins of the construction and inspiration that led to the inception of Wright's American masterpiece; he blended both nineteenth century natural observations that derived from Walt Whitman to Henry David Thoreau with landscape.
FALLING WATER provides insight to Frank Lloyd's inspiration of constructing Fallingwater. In essence, he wanted to reconnect with nature and the nineteenth century romanticism of the wilderness, but with the natural expressions that were innate and organic; one may suggest he possessed an inkling of eastern inspiration. The several quotes throughout the book from Whitman, Thoreau, Emerson, Rushkin, and as well Wright and Edward Kaufmann, Jr. will provide a perfect poetic composition that complements the beautiful photographs of the house and the outlining natural landscape. Wright says it best: "In the realm of organic architecture human imagination must render the harsh language of structure into becomingly humane expressions of form instead of devising inanimate facades or rattling bones of construction. Poetry of form is as necessary to great architecture as foliage is to the tree, blossoms to the plant or flesh to the body" (23).
So, if you are looking for a coffee table book that does not leave a lot of clutter, FALLING WATER: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S ROMANCE WITH NATURE will definitely provide the balance. It is a little book packed with much content. And most likely, it will leave you wanting to share it with others.
Of interest but ultimately unsatisfying.......2002-11-17
My objectives in reading and collecting books about domestic architecture generally focus on gathering information about how I might approach the design of the internal and external details for use in my own (dream) home.
Frank Lloyd Wright is a constant source of inspiration in my endeavours as he designed and built many wonderful houses... and one of his most famous works is the subject of this book.
My initial impressions of this book were good, although I was probably taken-in by the wonderful photo on the cover of the book more than anything else. Upon having a quick flip through the book, I found there were some lovely photos of the house and it's surrounds and there was some mention made of how the house was created to suit its environment and how it was an example of Frank Lloyd Wright's "Organic Architecture".
However, upon a detailed reading of the book, although I found a few more interesting photos and some thought-provoking philosophical quotations, the detail was practically non-existent and the book was ultimately unsatisfying. No mention was made of what sort of thinking went behind the design of the house and why things were done the way they were... and there weren't even any significant diagrams or floor plans of the house included, except for a simple site layout on the last page of the book, which looked like it was added more as an afterthought than as something that would be informative to the reader.
In short, although the book gives me about a dozen new photos of Fallingwater, it doesn't really add to my knowledge of Frank Lloyd Wright's design philosophies and, given the price of this book, I would suggest this book belongs on the corner of a coffee table, rather than in an amateur architect's reference bookshelf.
Beautiful Photographs!.......2002-08-31
My family went to see fallingwater, and all of my dad's film was ruined! I bought this book for him, and it serves as the perfect reminder of our trip. It includes gorgeous photographs, fitting quotes, a plan of fallingwater, and a bit of the history. If you're looking for tons of information, this is definitely NOT the book for you. But if you're looking for beautiful pictures and a precious keepsake, this is a wonderful book. ENJOY!
Gorgeous Photographs and Great Quotes to Show the Wright Way.......2001-07-10
Fallingwater is considered by many to be Frank Lloyd Wright's greatest home design, and by many others to be one of the very finest American homes ever built. Perched atop a waterfall in southwestern Pennsylvania in the Allegheny mountains, the site is visually stunning . . . and the home's organic connection to the site will astonish you.
Fallingwater was designed for the Edgar Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh to be a weekend retreat away from the bustle of city life. One of Frank Lloyd Wright's comments about homes is that they must be "integral to site; integral to environment; integral to the life of the inhabitants." Judged by that standard, you will agree, if you are like me, that Fallingwater is his best work. The Kaufmanns wanted to have a romantic experience in the house, and he certainly provided them with one. The siting allows a Southern exposure for almost all of the rooms, a view of the waterfall and/or woods, and the constant sound of the waterfall. The final design captures nicely his sense of Nature's dual character, "unrestrained . . . power in contrast to its subtler, ordered beauty." The material and colors are drawn from the area as much as possible, and in some views, the home seems like simply part of the rocks it is perched on.
The quotes are usually attached to specific photographs that catch the various views you see of Fallingwater from any ground position or perspective and the views from Fallingwater. They capture ideas from Wright and nonarchitectural thinkers as diverse as Thoreau and Ruskin.
The photographs are the best part of this book. Since you will probably not be one of the 160,000 visitors who come in most years, these images are the way you can know the home. Almost all are in color, and are nicely distributed throughout the four seasons. My only complaint is that the book's page size should have been larger to permit a stronger connection between the viewer and these remarkable scenes. If you are like me, you will hear the water as you commune with the images.
Through the essay and quotes, Fallingwater curator and administrator Lynda S. Waggoner does a marvelous job of using Fallingwater to also demonstrate the essential concepts of all Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture and interior design.
After you read and enjoy this book, think a little about where you live. How have you made nature more accessible? What else could you do to make your living there to be more relaxed and natural, and to balance the rest of your life?
Feel connected to all the life and natural objects around you . . . and be refreshed!
Excellent introduction to FLW.......1999-03-26
I have found that developing an interest in architecture is principly one of exposure to excellence. This book does that with a minimum of text(although very concise and informative) and a beautiful arrangement of photographs in a manageable size. The brief history of the family and Wright's involvement is excellent! Thank you, Lynda S. Waggoner.
Book Description
These new titles in the Building Blocks series showcase four more icons of modern architecture, as portrayed by renowned architectural photographer Ezra Stoller. Two buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, Fallingwater and Taliesin West, Louis Kahn's Salk Institute, and Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building are shown in original condition, with original furnishings, as the architects intended them to be seen. Wright's integration of architecture and landscape, Kahn's dramatic yet humane monumentality, and Mies's austere elegance are revealed and preserved in Stoller's classic compositions. Small, elegant, and affordable, each volume presents the photo-graphs that made these structures famous. With 60 rich duotone plates (and 16 color plates for Taliesin West), a brief introduction, and newly drawn plans, sections, and elevations, these books constitute the essential photographic histories of the most important works of modernism.
Customer Reviews:
Superb little book on an exciting & special building.......2002-12-26
Excellent little book on the "Fallingwater" house by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed in 1935 ( He also designed Guggenheim Museum ). This little book ( measures 5 X 7 inches )contains 90 pages of which the first 15 pages are text, from page 17 to 82 there're Black&White photographs, the last 8 pages are drawings and plans of the house accompanied by explanations to the images. Photos are by Ezra Stoller and "Fallingwater" ( Pennsylvania - USA ) is undoubtfully the most photogenic private house ever built! All photos are superb, especially the ones showing the waterfall running underneath this superb house!
Drawings and plans are made by floor and give a good idea of the interior dining room, kitchen and terraces!
Ezra Stoller does it again!.......2000-03-31
Ezra Stoller is an expert in the art of photography. Although Mr. Stoller is not an architect, he shows you the beauty of one of the marvels of great architecture. Falling Water is one of those dream houses, built over a waterfall, but fitting in perfectly with its surroundings. Ezra Stoller captures its magnificence.
Book Description
Probably the most famous modern house in America, Fallingwater---the Pennsylvania country home placed right over a waterfall---was Frank Lloyd Wright's greatest triumph. This book captures the spirit of this exceptional design, tracing its creation and construction as well as showing its breathtaking interior and exterior spaces.
By Carla Lind. 60 pages, 31 color photographs, 4 black & white photographs, 5 1/4 x 5 1/4". Casebound with dust jacket.
Customer Reviews:
Brief and Useful.......2007-01-04
This book is very useful for giving you both a quick overview of Lloyd's approach and how Fallingwater manifests his work. The text is incisisive and despite its small size, the pictures are very good and instructive.
Of value before or after seeing the house.
Making a splash..........2003-05-18
Carla Lind's small-format, 58-page book on `Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater' is an excellent introduction both to this remarkable structure, but also to the interesting life of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The book is very short, and could almost qualify as a Cliff's Notes version of Wright's architectural style and principles, as well as being a remarkably thorough introduction to Fallingwater, which is perhaps the most famous modern home in America.
Built in the midst of the Great Depression, `Fallingwater' was one of the projects that resurrected Frank Lloyd Wright's faltering career. His own famous Wisconsin home, `Taliesin', burned twice and was ultimately seized during bankruptcy and divorce proceedings. For the ten years prior to getting the nod to design Fallingwater, only five commissions of Wright's were built. However, during this time, Wright was not unproductive. He wrote his autobiography (which was later revised in 1943), began planning for Taliesin West, and eventually earned a cover of `Time' magazine as Fallingwater was being built.
Wright was reactionary against the International Style, which took hold after 1932. Wright had been partly responsible for the new aesthetic, and was in fact influenced by its developments, but he recoiled at the idea, and wanted his work to have more spirit, more poetry, than the austere and functional/mechanical designs in vogue seemed to hold.
`Fallingwater, Wright's polemic response to modernism, arises from ideas and imagery that flowed in such profusion from his pen and pencil in the years around 1900.'
- Joseph Connors, Wright on Nature and the Machine
Fallingwater would, in fact, not seem out of place in the Bauhaus school of design, though Wright would probably not have appreciated the connection.
`It was an extraordinary moment with the full force of Wright's concept became apparent. Father enjoyed bold ideas and challenges, and my mother found sources of graceful livability in an unusual setting.'
- Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., Fallingwater
Edgar and Lillian Kaufmann commissioned the project that was destined to reinvigorate Wright's career. A wealthy Pittsburgh couple, they were noted for interest in artistic and imaginative endeavours. The Kaufmanns' son was an apprentice at Taliesin in 1934 when they visited and became inspired to hire Wright to design their new home in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. It was a perfect site for Wright's imagination.
`If Fallingwater is viewed as a perfect marriage of building and site, the leading partner is nature. Wright's habitat is an extension of the Appalachian terrain in which it rests so respectfully. Deep in the rugged forest, where dogwood, rhododendron, oak, maple, birch, and hickory flourish, Bear Run hurries to meet the Youghiogheny River in the valley below. The Kaufmanns, committed to conservation of the site, regarded the largest of Bear Run's rocky waterfualls as the heart of their property, a place to picnic and lie in the sun.'
The house is anchored by four giant boulders built over the waterfall, and the sense of steps, ledges, drops, and waterfall shapes are thoroughly pervasive throughout the house and guesthouse. Exposed stone layers are primary design and aesthetic values; rectilinear shapes are dominant with circular and curved elements as secondary components. Windows are everywhere, as nature is never excluded even in the deepest part of the house. Many rooms have terraces, which go in different directions around the property.
The house became an immediate showplace, one that has remained an architectural marvel of world renown. In 1963, Edgar Kaufmann Jr. donated the house and its grounds (over 1500 acres) as a privately-held public memorial to his parents and to Wright's genius. The son of the original owners, Kaufmann Jr. was destined to remain at Taliesin for only a short time, but as the primary go-between on development and construction of Fallingwater, he secured a permanent place for himself in American architectural history. Eventually he went on to a distinguished career of teaching and writing in the architectural field, including the larger, definitive study of Fallingwater (review coming shortly!). He was also on the design staff of the Museum of Modern Art.
Fallingwater receives over 100,000 visitors per year.
This book is a proud tribute to the house - a small format that nonetheless captures a great spirit. Every page has beautiful, full-colour photographs that illustrate the design and decoration of the house in its natural environment. There are also a few construction photos that show development stages. The book also includes several handy time-lines and bullet-point pages, including one of Wright's pre-Fallingwater history, and one highlighting the major aspects of the design considerations.
Of course, the best place to purchase this book is where I purchased it, at Fallingwater itself. The house is open to the public on weekends throughout the year, and also on Tuesdays and Fridays from April to November. It is about an hour-and-a-half drive from Pittsburgh, through generally gorgeous countryside.
Carla Lind, the author of this text, is also the author of `The Wright Style' and `Lost Wright'. She has worked to preserve Wright buildings for several decades, and worked in various foundations and organisations dedicated to maintaining Wright's designs and structures.
A lovely tribute to an architectural masterpiece.......2001-03-28
"Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater," by Carla Lind, is one of a series of books that celebrate the work of this visionary architect. This volume in the series is devoted to Fallingwater, the amazing modern house designed by Wright in 1935 for Liliane and Edgar J. Kaufmann. This is a "mini-book," but despite its small size, it is an impressive tribute to a landmark of home architecture.
Carla Lind's concise but informative text is complemented by many glorious full-color photographs of Fallingwater. There are both exterior and interior shots that capture many of the home's memorable features: the rough stone walls, the cantilevered balconies, the bold use of glass, the remarkable asymmetrical fireplaces, and more. There are also some fascinating black-and-white historical photos.
Lind also includes a bibliography and a chronology. The text is further complemented by a series of sidebar quotes from Wright, Edgar Kaufmann Jr., and others.
I have visited Fallingwater. It is a stunning architectural achievement which, I think, no book could completely capture. But Carla Lind has done a good job of celebrating the spirit of this remarkable house.
Nice - but outgunned and outclassed.......1999-03-05
There is nothing wrong with this book. In fact, it is a good value for the price. The problem is that this book is a handgun blasted apart by a cannon. The cannon is the larger, heavier, more expensive (but well worth it) book on Fallingwater by Edgar Kaufman Jr. (Wright's pupil and son of the client).
For a less expensive gift - this is the book.
For yourself, a Frank Lloyd Wright fan, or a lover of Fallingwater; invest in the cannon - it will blow you away!
Average customer rating:
- ... a magical visit with a different perspective ...
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Fallingwater: The Model
Paul Bonfilio
Manufacturer: Rizzoli
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Fallingwater: A Frank Lloyd Wright Country House
ASIN: 0847823415
Release Date: 2001-02-03 |
Amazon.com
At first blush, the title has the same desperate ring as McDonald's: The Tofuburger or Disney: The Diaper--they couldn't think of another angle for a book about Fallingwater, the 1937 Pennsylvania house that still ranks as perhaps Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous and loved project, so they decided to do a book about the model of Fallingwater? Jeez! Such were my thoughts until I started leafing through this absolutely fascinating little book by Paul Bonfilio, the Madame Tussaud of architectural model-makers, who has created miniature reproductions of architectural landmarks (among them Johnson's Glass House, Neutra's Lovell House, and Mies's Barcelona Pavilion) for the permanent collection of NYC's Museum of Modern Art. Here, Bonfilio walks you through the process of re-creating on a Lilliputian scale this most complicated and beguiling of modernist houses--a job he completed for the MoMA in the early 1980s, only to do it again a few years later for a private commission. His painstaking narration, black-and-white photographs of each stage of the model's creation, and Ted Spagna's excellent photographs of the real house (shot expressly for Bonfilio to use in planning out his work) all work together splendidly here. Anyone who ever found satisfaction in the minutely focused process of assembling a model car or airplane will be completely absorbed by Bonfilio's quest to reproduce with unstinting detail and realism the diverse textures of Wright's masterpiece, from the complex stonework of its inner and outer walls to the dazzling sheen of the waterfall over which the front of the structure so famously perches.
But even better than that, Bonfilio's loving chronicle of taking Fallingwater apart and putting it back together again, as it were, accomplishes something that dozens of other books on this iconic house fail to do: it gets us to look at the house and its complex topography, its every elevation and surface, corner, and detail--as well as the choices, inspired and imprudent, that Wright made in designing it--with a fresh new eye. It's almost like having an investment in its original creation, figuring out step by step how to build a house around a boulder, cantilever it over a waterfall, build half the furniture right into it, and somehow make the whole thing work structurally and look drop-dead gorgeous at the same time. Oh, and the book's end papers are matched to the same Cherokee-red paint that Wright used in the house--the perfect swaddling for this unexpectedly delightful little volume's embarrassment of riches. --Timothy Murphy
Book Description
Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, in Bear Run, Pa., of 1935, is one of the great masterpieces of modern architecture. Its model, constructed by Paul Bonfilio in 1984 , is a masterpiece of model making and a high point in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In discussing how the model was built, the design of the famous house itself is also analyzed, throwing new light on many intricacies of its complex construction.
Customer Reviews:
... a magical visit with a different perspective ..........2004-06-16
In the late '50s I had the unusual chance to personally ask FLW what school might be best to learn City Planning. Not knowing then that his inimitable, signature response would be "you can't learn that in a School, you have to learn by doing."
Later, I also had the pleasure of knowing Paul Bonfilio, and can attest that his own product here is a labor of love that reflects an intuitive, heartfelt resonance.
BTW, if you have the opportunity to personally visit Fallingwater, try to exactly time it to that week in May when the surrounding wooded Moutain Laurel canopy is in their full and profuse bloom for an added breathtakingly magical experience.
Average customer rating:
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Fallingwater Using 3d Studio: A Case Study and Tutorial/Book and Disk
Laura Sanchez , and
Alex Sanchez
Manufacturer: OnWord Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Fallingwater: A Frank Lloyd Wright Country House
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