Fallingwater — 3D model

About

A weekend house for the Pittsburgh department-store owner Edgar J. Kaufmann and his wife Liliane, designed in 1935 and built 1936–38, with the guest wing finished in 1939. Wright set it over the upper falls of Bear Run instead of facing them: "I want you to live with the waterfall, not to look at it."

Three floors of local Pottsville sandstone and reinforced concrete: cantilevered terraces with 26-inch rounded parapets in light ochre, steel window frames in Cherokee red, a chimney rising 30 feet above the living floor, a living room of about 1,800 square feet on four stone bolsters, a glass hatch with a stair to the stream, and an uphill guest wing with a spring-fed pool. 2,885 square feet indoors plus 2,445 of terraces. Since 1963 it has been preserved by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy; the cantilevers were post-tensioned in 2002.

Bear Run flows west-southwest beneath the house to the Youghiogheny. The falls under the terraces drop about 25 feet in two tiers, an upper tier of about 15 feet and a lower one of about 6 feet with a steep cascade between them; the lower falls downstream drop another 7 to 10 feet. The water here is simulated: each block of the sandstone lip passes water by the weir law, the sheets leave the lip at the critical velocity and fall on true parabolas, the streaks in them accelerate as they drop, and the pools carry their ripples and foam downstream.

Built to the published record: plans, levels and rooms digitised from the 2010 HABS measured drawings (PA-5346, sheets 4–10, 1/4 in = 1 ft): the living room 33 ft 8 in by 48 ft running north–south over Bear Run, the kitchen, dressing room and study each 12 ft by 15 ft 9 in in the tower, floors at +9 ft 4 in and +17 ft 3¼ in, the chimney to +32 ft 9½ in, the hatch platform 9 ft 3⅛ in below the living floor; ceilings 7 ft at the edges rising to a 9-ft cove; four bolsters on the 12-ft bay lines; 26-in parapets; a chimney 30 ft above the living floor; a 6-ft fireplace niche with the 7-ft hearth boulder; three steps down to the foyer; the 28-ft bridge with its lit concrete panel; the guest wing (HABS PA-5346-A) about 42 ft above the stream (1,340 ft against Bear Run’s 1,298 ft), with its lounge 18 ft 1 in by 16 ft 1 in, guest room 15 ft 9 in by 14 ft 1 in, ceilings 7 ft 4 in under a second level at +7 ft 8⅝ in, the staff rooms over the carport, and the spring-fed pool 30 ft 1 in by 13 ft and 6 ft deep inside a rim raised 2 ft 3¾ in; a four-car carport. Windows have horizontal transoms only, never vertical mullions, except the four steel posts on the living room’s south wall that help carry the master terrace. Headboards are on east walls. Room layout and terrace outlines are approximations, and the model is drawn in a local frame turned 30° from true north.

Getting around

Orbit circles a target point. Left-drag rotates, right-drag or Shift+drag pans, and the wheel zooms. Keep zooming in and you pass straight through the walls into the rooms. W A S D slide the target across the ground; R and V raise and lower it. Double-click anything to focus on it.

Fly moves freely. Drag to look, W A S D to move, E and Q to rise and sink, Shift to go faster, and the wheel sets the speed.

Walk keeps your feet on the ground, the floors and the stairs. Go in through the front door, down the hatch stair to the stream, up the stone stair to the bedrooms and the roof garden, out onto every terrace, across the bridge and up the covered walkway to the guest wing. Space jumps.

Frame shows the whole house, Approach puts you on the drive south of the bridge, and Aerial looks down through the trees. X steps through the features with a short note on each, and G starts a slow drone tour from wherever you are; Esc ends it.

Press ? or click outside this box to close.