Frank Lloyd Wright Falling Water House Photos
- 0 Comments
Fans of Frank Lloyd Wright's house Fallingwater have long been able to visit the architect's modernist masterpiece as a museum, but soon they can enjoy the house almost as if they were living in it.
In the coming months, curators of the house built amid a waterfall in the leafy Laurel Highlands of western Pennsylvania will offer a new program, Insight Onsite at Fallingwater, where visitors will spend one full day and two evenings at the residence, enjoying the house as it was intended.
While regular visitors are whisked through the iconic house in guided tours lasting about one hour, those at the Insight Onsite program can lounge about reading, engage in interesting conversations on the terraces, have a cocktail by the fireplace, write a personal letter at a desk and enjoy a lively dinner party.
Previously, only students, teachers and staff could do more than go through on a tour, according to director Lynda Waggoner.
So far, dates are set for three sessions, during which visitors can pay to stay two nights at a house on the grounds - the Bear Run Nature Preserve - and spend hours lingering inside Fallingwater itself, even having dinner there, she said.
The sessions are set to start May 11, June 10 and Sept. 7, she revealed this morning.
Eight to 10 visitors will participate at a time, at a per-person cost of $1,095 double occupancy, $1,595 single occupancy.
The spots may already be spoken for, however.
Yesterday, a news story told of a single session being envisioned as a test, with no dates selected, because officials were unsure about public interest.
"It just got out yesterday, and we're kind of overwhelmed by the amount of attention it's getting," she said.
Phone calls kept coming in, and the Web site, www.fallingwater.org, bogged down because of all the traffic.
This morning, a waiting list was growing for the program called InSightOnsite, Waggoner said.
Additional dates are a possibility, though.
"I don't know how many we can do a year," she said. "We have to test it to see what the impact is one us."
Many have marveled at how Wright configured the home of a Pittsburgh department store king into a forest landscape - partly over a waterfall.
Waggoner speaks as if compelled to help others comprehend the magic of the Fayette County place, about 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
"There is a feeling of being right with things," she said. "The house is so in harmony with nature, and there is something in our nature that wants that."
It has moods that change not just with the seasons but as sunlight shifts throughout the day, so one needs to linger for hours to sense its richness, she said.
During the sessions, besides sojourns and meals inside, participants will take part in such activities as landscape tours, a bonfire and cookout, a picnic, and a lecture at the historic barn. Visitors will stay in a four-bedroom house with private baths.
"It's just something we've always thought to share," said Waggoner, who fell in love with the place as an area high school student.
"It's everyone's dream house in the woods," she said. "I get excited still whenever I see it. I love showing it off. . . . It is the great American house. Truly. It's been voted the most significant work of American architecture."
Regular visitors pay $18 admission but the more intimate experience comes with a more exclusive price tag -- $1,195.
"It's a different experience of the house when you are here by yourself than when you are with a group of people," Fallingwater Director Lynda Waggoner said in her office, nestled at the back of the house.
"We'd like to be able to share that."
Up to eight people will arrive in the evening and be given an in-depth tour and then sleep overnight, not in Fallingwater itself but in a newer four-bedroom home built on the grounds for the accountant of the family which owned the property.
The next morning visitors have the morning to lounge around the house and grounds, have lunch on the terraces, have more time alone to do as you wish and then have a dinner party at the house with curators and a guest, perhaps a leading figure in the architecture community.
Waggoner said the program would appeal to those with a passion for architecture.
"It's a compete experience of nature and art. This is the tree house you always wanted to live it," she said. "The goal here is to provide the best experience we can of the house without sleeping in the house."
Curators unsuccessfully attempted to launch the program earlier this year as a mid-week program since the house is normally closed on Wednesdays.
But those who expressed an interest said they wanted to attend on the weekend rather than midweek. Now curators are finalizing weekend dates for the debut program, perhaps in December or in early March when the house is normally closed.
Fallingwater was built for Pittsburgh department store owner Edgar Kaufmann Sr., whose son briefly studied architecture under Wright.
More than 4 million people have visited the house, about 90 minutes from Pittsburgh, where leaders of the Group of 20 leading rich and developing countries were meeting at a summit Thursday and Friday.
The house features an innovative cantilevered design, with terraces and floors extending over the waterfall, meaning that while the sound of water can be heard throughout the house, you have to go outside to actually see the waterfall.
Built in the 1930s at the height of the Great Depression, the house cost $155,000, or about $2.3 million when adjusted for inflation.
To contact Fallingwater, phone 724-329-8501 or e-mail fallingwater@paconserve.org.
Related posts:
- Debra Lafave Sexiest Photos For those who have been feeling a little Teacher Sex...
- Maia Campbell Crack Video and Photos Maia Campbell is most well-known for her role on the...
- Nikki Catsouras Car Crash Photos Nikki Catsouras died in a terrific car crash in 2006....
- Tiffany Shepherd Playboy Photos Former high school biology teacher Tiffany Shepherd, who was fired...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
