On The Road Again, Again

I am on my way to Western PA, in the vicinity of Ohiopyle and Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water. I have been a FLW fan ever since I visited the Meyer May House in Grand Rapids, Michigan. When I was detailed by by SSA to Chicago for 13 weeks, I had the opportunity to go to Oak Park, Il, where FLW had a home and studio, and also designed most of his neighbor's houses. You can walk down the street and see one FLW after another (with real people still living in them!)

If you have never been inside a FLW house, I highly recommend it. It's not so much about the furniture or the fixtures as the feeling you get when you are there. One-with-nature sort of thing.

FLW designed homes to blend with their natural surroundings. In the case of Falling Water, the owner, Edgar J. Kaufmann, expected his new summer home to have the traditional picture window view of the waterfall on his property. Instead, FLW put the house ON the waterfall and created an American icon. While much of the exterior of Falling Water looks somewhat modern to us, it was built in 1934. As with most other FLW buildings, there was nothing quite like it in the neighborhood!