Fallingwater - Guest House and Grounds

So you go out this door, and up these stairs




And then you see this...




And finally, you see:


So the guest house and the employee quarters and offices (now the foundation offices) are all up at the top of the hill.  The guest house was finished a couple of years after the main house, but the entire property was used by the Kaufmann family until 1963-ish, when Junior donated it to the Conservancy.  Because it was donated directly from an original family member it holds the distinction of being the only FLW designed house open to the public with all its furnishing, artwork, and setting intact.  Exactly his vision.


Stairs to the staff quarters/offices


Tiffany glass in the guest house.



Looking out the guest house windows, down to the main house.  There are bedrooms in the guest house, but the living area as very wide couches that can double as a beds depending on how many guests are hanging around.

This is also the location of the FLW designed dining room chair.


I tried to take a picture of the coolest thing in the house, but I didn't get any that actually did it justice. There is a long hallway with a doorway with a transom about halfway down the hall.  The close side and the far side of the cabinets are set up as mirror images, with the cabinet door fixtures on opposite sides of the door. The transom over the door looks like a mirror making you ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that the door is solid, and you are looking at a reflection.  And then you see someone walk through the door and it blows your mind.


Why yes, there is a guest pool.  The wall around it makes it look like it's only four or so feet deep, but it is actually more like six or seven feet deep.  Another little optical illusion for you.  The guest pool is actually spring-fed, making it freezing cold.  They drain and clean the pool throughout the season, but I visited over Thanksgiving, the end of the season, and they were letting it go until spring.






This cute little blonde lady was our guide, and she was fabulous.  If you book a tour and she shows up, you're in for a treat.

The branches are actually wisteria and our guide told us that it blooms in May and is beautiful.  Some of you who know my love of the Huntington will also know of my love for purple wisteria.

Here is a shot of the guest house from Mr. Kaufmann's terrace.



The drive way actually goes over the bridge below, around the "back" of Fallingwater (where the front door is), and then up and around the hill to here.

These were originally designed as carriage/car ports because FLW hated garages.  He hated places that were destined to be places for clutter.  They were closed in by Junior and now house a movie theater.  Above were the original staff quarters/offices.  They are still used as offices for the conservancy.

After seeing a quick movie about Fallingwater we were on our own to explore the grounds. I decided to walk back down to the house (there was a terrace that was accessible to the public, but we didn't go out on it) so I could explore a little more before heading the iconic photo site.

Walking back down the trail.


These stairs are by the front door and lead to another first floor terrace.  It has doors that open off of the main living space, but isn't the terrace you see on the tour.  It interior doors are opposite the desk/library on the first floor, and next to the weird little doors that lead to the river stairs.


Terrace outside of guest room.



So, obviously these are the stair that lead to the river, but you can only access them (probably smart or you'd have a lot of tourists going over the waterfall) from inside the living room.


The stairs to the little wading pool (on the right of the picture above).  Although theoretically you can access these from the terrace, they were blocked off.  Otherwise I would've been tempted to walk down there.  Although nothing would've gotten me in that water.  It was a COLD day!



The grounds




The iconic view of the house:
















Why yes, I did take a LOT of pictures from this spot, and I love them all, and no, this is not all of them.

Let me just sum up:  I loved going here; I had a fabulous time; I would recommend it to everyone.  Especially those already in Pennsylvania, and I would very much recommend that you spring for the first of the day behind the scenes tour.  I would love to go back, and if I ever do, I'll stay at one of the FLW designed places nearby.

Should be one of the 1,000 Places to See Before You Die.

Fallingwater - 3rd Floor

Onward and upward to the third floor!


The third floor was exclusively for the use of the Kaufmann's son, Edgar Junior.  Junior had studied briefly with FLW and, indeed, it was he who suggested to Senior that FLW design Fallingwater.  There was some disagreement between FLW and Junior regarding the layout of the third floor which led to some compromises that made the space more functional for Junior, but compromised some of the integrity of the idea that FLW was trying to carry out.


Another desk cut-out, I really like this little feature.  This room was designed to be the bedroom of Junior, but Junior decided it would be better suited for an office/study.  Because this decision was not made until construction was well under way the bookshelves along the walls were all added in later.  You can see from this picture that the shelving doesn't have the organic "fit" that the other built-ins have throughout the house.


This stone sits above the fireplace and was quarried from the original site.  If memory serves, the oxidation of the stone makes it this same red color as the metal work in the house.


I love this detail of the woodwork throughout the house.  FLW not only demanded that the natural sap lines stay in all the wood built-ins, but also wanted them to line up horizontally further establishing his mind control of using horizontal lines to make you look where he wanted you to look.


The top of the picture is the study, you walk down this narrow little hall and run into this table and door that lead out to Junior's private terrace.  The picture is Mrs. Kaufmann.

If you continue down the hall you get to the bedroom.

Junior took a music stand from the study and used it as a book stand so he could read in bed.  This is a fantastic idea!


From the terrace looking back into the third floor.



Half-way down the hall between the study and the bedroom there is (I think, Junior's bathroom), and ...

wait for it...


It's the steep, forbidding staircase!  (I should've taken a picture from the top and bottom, but - that is why I'm not a professional photographer.  /shrug)


Ha....we are back on the second floor, I bet you weren't expecting that, were you?

From here we went back down that storage hall and up and around to the guest house.  (I also should've taken more than one picture of this hallway, but again ... /shrug.)

Fallingwater - 2nd Floor

As we recall, the first floor of Fallingwater is really just one huge living area the original "open concept" floor plan that you hear about all the time on House Hunters.  The bedrooms, bathrooms, offices, etc.  are all located on upper floors.  So you take these stairs to the second floor:


and end up on this landing area:


From this spot you run into more of the FLW mind control.  There is a long, dark hallway that leads to the private bedroom of Mrs. Kaufmann and the study of Mr. Kaufmann, and steep, unfriendly staircase that leads to a private study, a dark-ish hallway with a very bright light at the end, and the guest bedroom.  I wish I'd have captured this better, so you could really get the effect, but the basic notion is that instead of separating public/private space with doors or gates FLW separates them through psychological means.  You'd rather go down the hallway toward the light (which leads to the breezeway/stairs for the guest house), than the hallway that is dark.  You'd rather go into the bright room behind you (the guest room), than up the steep staircase (private study).   Psychologically it sorts you out instead of relying of physical barriers.  I thought that was fascinatingly brilliant.

Here is the guest room:


A couple of things to note in this picture.  The bed is low, but just out of frame on the right is a wall of glass - windows and door to the guest terrace.  Lying on the bed you can actually look out over the terrace wall into the forest.  (Side note:  all the terrace walls are dangerously low.  Again, this house was built for a specific customer, a specific lifestyle, in a specific moment in time, and that means that this house is not child-friendly ... or a friend to the elderly or wobbly either.  It was meant for adults -  healthy, active adults.)

Also take note of the painting over the side-table.  It is a Diego Rivera original, and if my memory serves, was given to the Kaufmanns by Frida Kahlo (his wife, and their guest).  Almost every room in the house has very valuable artwork, Lalique crystal and glass, and Tiffany lamps and glass.  The Kaufmanns were definitely well to do.


Tiffany glass, I can't remember if it is a lamp or just something pretty.  This guest room is the only room in the house that has blinds.  Mrs. Kaufmann wanted to give some privacy to her guests, especially since from her terrace you can see right into the guest room.


Ventilation was a critical issue in a house built over a waterfall.  FLW used ventilation windows throughout the house, some in odd, but interesting places to help keep the wet, musty smell our of the house.

Back on the landing: if you walk down the hallway toward the bright light you run into this:

Seriously I love the planter being both inside outside.  Like someone built the door around it.  There is also another boulder to the left of the frame that is original to the site.  As mentioned the house was built not just on a waterfall, but into a hillside.  A very wet hillside.  There were going to be constant problems of drainage and run-off down the hill.  During the spring run-off water was channeled down this boulder in the hallway (the rest of the hall was used for storage and such) and then out the over the driveway, down the hill.  FLW thought it easier to simply accommodate nature instead of attempting to thwart it.  Despite this the house is remarkably dry, and doesn't smell wet or mildew-y at all.



Mrs. Kaufmann's bedroom.  You can see the bed reflected in the mirrored closet door.  The closets were custom built with wicker (looking at least) tray that helped ventilate the closet and keep moisture to a minimum.  Every bedroom had a desk, a built-in closet, and an en-suite bathroom.  The bathrooms were roped off, but we could look in them, but I didn't really take any bathroom photos.  Again, across from the closet is the wall that leads to the terrace.


Taken from Mrs. Kaufmann's private terrace.  You can see her view from bed as well as how alarmingly low the wall is.  You should also keep in mind that you can hear the rush of the waterfall from every room in the house, from every window, every terrace, everywhere.  It is the music you listened to all day.



Both this picture and the next two were taken from Mrs. Kaufmann's terrace looking at the second floor.  The top picture looks primarily back into her bedroom.  You can see that she had greenery (rather than blinds) for privacy-they cover the dressing room/bathroom window.  You can also see that in reality the guest room and her room are next to each other, but from inside they feel (thank to FLW mind control) feel miles apart and completely private.



The guest room has its own terrace with a little table and chairs. It is also set at an angle that means the guests cannot see into Mrs. Kaufmann's bedroom.


It really feels like you walked a mile to go from guest bedroom, to her bedroom.  When I went on the terrace and saw that they were right next to each other ... MIND CONTROL.

Here are some photos looking from Mrs. Kaufmann's terrace down toward the main floor.

This view looks through those weird doors in the living room clear down to the river.


Looking back over to the bridge you cross to reach the house.  This group taking pictures was the next group in the house.  Up until this point we had the house to ourselves.  It was wonderful.


Oh hey, I did take a picture of a bathroom!  This is Mrs. Kaufmann's dressing room and bathroom.  FLW used cork (which only become popular years later) as the best bathroom material, a natural way to combat moisture problems.


Why yes, that is an original Picasso in Mrs. Kaufmann's bedroom.


Lalique glass on the bedside table.


...And a Tiffany lamp to top off the room.


Close up of the lamp, but I want you to also notice how the glass just blends into the stone.  No metal flashing or rivets.  Just perfectly cut and placed glass.

Even further down the long dark hallway is Mr. Kaufmann's study. There was a built-in desk that didn't allow the window to open.  Unacceptable to FLW, but what was unacceptable to Mr. Kaufmann was giving up desk space for a stupid window.  The compromise:

AWESOME!  A perfectly measured cut-out for the window to swing open.



So these next couple of shots illustrate my favorite part of the whole house.  There is a central column of windows that runs the height of the house.  All told there are (I believe) seventeen of these windows.  FLW believed in thinking outside the box.  The box being a normally built little box of a building.  These windows opened outward, the screens opened inward, and because they were set on a corner the whole column could be completely opened to the air.  He called this little feature "exploding the box".







The pictures don't even do justice to how actually AMAZING this feature is. Seriously.

Here again is a picture that shows the whole central column. See in the second section the chair against the glass?


There is the corner of it.



And again, the blurring of the line between inside and outside.  That next group has made it out onto the main terrace by this time.


We'll come back to talk about that steep forbidding staircase after we visit the the third floor.  We accessed floor number three by going out on Mr. Kaufmann's private terrace.

Looking back at the main terrace from Mr. Kaufmann's second floor terrace.







I love looking at the house from the view on this terrace.  This house is absolutely amazing from every. single. angle.  LOVE!


We came out the red door on the bottom, and went in the red door on the top.  Also, for the record - I really, really love the zig-zag look of this exterior staircase.

Up to the third floor: