Mill Run - Fallingwater, one of Frank Lloyd Wright's most distinctive accomplishments and one of the most unique houses ever built in America, is getting a new lease on life with the help of some much needed renovations.
The Kaufmann family, owners of the Kaufmann's Department Store enterprise in Pittsburgh, built the home in 1939. The family used the home as a weekend and vacation dwelling until 1963, when the property was donated to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.
In a 1991 poll of members of the American Institute of Architects, Fallingwater was voted "the best all-time work of American architecture." It is a monument to Wright's concept of organic architecture - harmonizing man with nature so effectively, the structure and its surrounding environment become a single, unified composition.
The house looms over a waterfall on Bear Run, a mountain stream tributary of the Youghiogheny River in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Following the natural pattern established by the stream's rocky ledges, the structure is positioned over the falls in a series of cantilevered concrete "trays" anchored to sandstone masonry walls. Although the structure rises more than 30 feet above the falls, the predominance of its horizontal lines makes the house appear to be hovering, thus creating the sheltering effect. Two outdoor terraces extending from the living room and master bedroom comprise almost as much floor space as the interior of the house.
Bar reinforcement is generally placed in the top of the cantilever members to carry tension created by dead and live loads. Such loads at the master and main terraces include stone flooring, furniture, people and snow. A deficiency in the reinforcement of the cantilevers has caused the two terraces to sag downward. Cantilever deflections caused tension cracks to appear at the parapet walls at the master terrace. Left unattended, these problems might have eventually caused the structure to fall into the stream below.
Until the 1990's tension cracks were cosmetically patched without addressing the underlying structural issues. Cracks reappeared in the patched areas as the terraces continued to deflect. Restorative action was recommended to avoid the eventual collapse of the structure.
In 1999, a peer review panel assembled by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy studied earlier findings and recommendations to stabilize the cantilevers. In October 2000, VStructural LLC, a unit of the Structural Group Company, a national structural repair contractor headquartered in Baltimore, MD., was retained by the conservancy to perform the restoration of both the master bedroom and living room cantilevered terraces.
The Fallingwater renovation plan calls for both strengthening and concrete repair. Since the structure is on the National Historic Register and is considered an architectural treasure, special care is required during construction to prevent damage to architectural features and landscaping.
VSL's Fallingwater restoration work commenced in December 2001 and will last throughout the winter season, when the house and grounds are normally closed to visitors. Along with structural repairs to terraces, the planned restoration activities include repairs to window and door framing, restoration to the stairs connecting living room to Bear Run, cleaning and repointing of the exterior stonewalls, plus waterproofing the entire structure.