FallingWater

[@nicklawrence7424]

I travelled from the UK to visit Falling Water and have consumed every book, film, and vlog I can find about this magnificent home. This short 5 minute review stands out as a fantastic representation of what is so special about the building.

[@Hoobz01]

Being a leading carpenter for 30yrs, site supervisor, and now project manager behind 4 monitors... Well done. Best video on this home on KZbin. I cant come look because I’m in Australia. You let me see exactly what I want to see there. It was like I was filming and narrating. You made my day mate. Thank you

[@JaneAlison008]

I was jaw dropping when I realized that the house was designed and built almost a century ago. What a visioner and what a good constructing company!

[@MicaRayan]

It is my dream house! Such a nice video. It is so contemporary though been build several decades ago. I want to visit this since attending architecture school! So elegant. Love FLW

[@alexanderk.3056]

Oh Fack! 😲😲😲 ... I'm Speechless! 🤐🤐🤐 A beautiful house to cry for ... 😭😭😭 Absolutely Stunning! 😍😍😍 ... 🤩🤩🤩

[@DeedeeM3gaDooDoo]

I love the attention you paid to details, even those that could have been better suited for those days construction standards. It does feel much real instead of going for a full reverence to FLW design

[@ElvenWisdom]

A real life Rivendell....absolute dream house of mine. Would love to take a tour one day. Wonderful video!

[@HiVizCamo]

3:10 That linen closet says it all, that's beautiful.

[@theHAL9000]

Terrific look at this masterpiece from a different perspective.

[@ajaxa9]

As a young architect I used to call up mr. Kaufman to see if the house was available for tours I guided several tours in the 1950s when everything was still absolutely original. many discussions with the caretaker about the house.

[@pocket83]

This was an excellent video, and it deserves more views. I live not so far from it, and I have always appreciated it, although as somewhat of a skeptic. I agreed very much with your assessment. For those who have never been there, the size of it and the amount to see is surprising. I once spent a few hours on just the outside, as there are nooks, crannies, and design details everywhere.

[@jaimix996]

Excelente todos los detalles que muestra este video.

[@bubbly754]

Mr Wright was a genius. Thanks for the video and narration.

[@iflick7235]

It's troubling, Falling Water is best appreciated from the "outside"

[@dlwatib]

The outside is a bit cliche after so many years of seeing practically all the photos from the same angle. There's a lot to like about it inside. There's something vaguely troubling about the whole thing to me. It's iconic, but not very practical. It must be a bear to maintain. But it's more than that. Frank Lloyd Wright was clearly experimenting with this house, and not all the details are well thought out. He often was finalizing his ideas in the very minutes before the Hoffmans would show up to meet with him about the house plans. I suppose it shows his genius that he was able to create such an iconic structure while devoting so little attention and energy to it. As the Hoffmans tell it, Wright was impossible to work with. He practically bullied them into building the house exactly how he felt it should be built, and way over budget, of course. They had very little input. Wright should have been charged with robbery. He took complete control of their pocketbook and built, not a home, but a statement for them completely of his own devising. It's no coincidence that nobody lives there today. I think what I'm sensing at Falling Waters is the subtle spirit of anarchy that Wright deliberately infused it with. As the video says, he wanted to build it "without order, without posts, without beams". He used cantilevers to excess, and emphasized them with the completely impractical heavy, stark bullnosed concrete vertical and horizontal planes of the half-walls and the flat roofs. But it's not a free and open anarchy that invites experimentation by the occupants, but rather a totalitarian anarchy of one man who has usurped control and imposed his own illogical rigidity on everything. The stone walls constrain to excess, the 90 degree angles, both horizontal and vertical, deny all other possibilities. There is no modifying this house to suit modern tastes, you either take it on its own terms or you live elsewhere. Heaven help you should you move even so much as a lamp. The Hoffmans clearly felt that way even when living in it. They always treated it like a shrine to Frank Lloyd Wright, not a home.

[@nmmoritz7012]

@@dlwatib The family's name is KAUFMANN not Hoffman, and it's FALLINGWATER not Falling Waters. Your opinion would be more appreciated had you taken the time to get these names correct.

[@DieFlabbergast]

@@nmmoritz7012 Your hobby is nitpicking, I see. You're good at it: but don't quit the day job.

[@hrh4961]

@@dlwatib Best description I've ever read of this place. You're so right: it's all about Wright's monumental ego. Great place to visit; not to live. After living in the house for a while, the parents were probably too embarrassed to sell it, but the son wasted no time unloading it when they were gone.

[@nonyabusi1132]

The Kaufmann family owned the Pittsburgh based department store had FLW build it. It was not kept and was in very bad shape for about 20 years then like the Phoenix it was cleaned up and repaired.

[@wisemanner5012]

Eye-catchingly wonderful, but probably not so wonderful to live in. I think I read somewhere that it is dripping with damp. The built-in furniture looks very nice and neat, but the chairs and sofas are probably not so good to relax in. You'd probably need a handrail on the steps going down to the river when you get a bit older, too. All in all, the sort of thing you get from ambitious architects (like Mies' Farnsworth House, for example). They are happy to design it and happy for you to pay for it, but they probably wouldn't want to live in it themselves. But, as I commented on The Farnsworth House - "you need to ask yourselves what you want. A comfortable, mediocre house to live in? Or some discomfort and immortality?" I hope to visit later this year or next.

[@Chris.Davies]

I know the cut-outs are intentional. And you should remember that Wright never supervised the construction of Fallingwater, and this was done by the apprentices from Taliesen. FLW was famous for saying the architects two best tools were the pencil in the drawing room, and the sledgehammer on the construction site. He was notorious for inspecting work after the workmen had gone home, and for smashing down anything that wasn't built exactly the way he drew it. He even re-arranged the furniture back into the correct arrangements when he would drop by unexpectedly on his clients in their FLW homes.

[@barrywainwright3391]

Fyi. Wright visited the home during construction and did have a hand a played a part in its construction. It's all mentioned in the books about him. He wouldn't miss the opportunity to help oversee construction of his masterpiece.

[@robertpoore7604]

Great video on the detail construction. Good Job

[@LOL59hahaha]

I would love to see this home in person too

[@lyudmila2882]

Absolutely should not be missed!! I've been there twice from the East Coast. Pittsburgh is very interesting, as is Connellsville, PA, coal-mining country. Kentuck Knob is in the area as well. Get yourself there ASAP!

[@rafaberr.rodriguez1303]

Thanks for the wonderful video and insigths. Feel like I had been there. Great job in looking for the small details

[@jibber2000]

Great that you showed us all the details and how it looks when from your perspective when walking in the house, not very many other videos does that

[@dustyboard2247]

Great video Gary. I love that "home". Truly impressive... I do however question that carpenters scribing skills :) My master always said; " Lad, if you understand the scribe you will understand all there is to know about carpentry" Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[@MindDezign]

Ahhh ha !! I have to give you Credit for such a different approach to this much cover home. I like you pointed out THT HUMAN in the home ,the not so nice aspects. Everybody shows the Glossy side. So I thank you

[@kimthompson6686]

Breathtaking, isn’t it? When Wright first proposed the idea of a house on a waterfall, Kaufman brought it to engineer friends who all said it couldn’t be done. When Kaufman sent these to Wright, he replied that if he listen to these men, he wasn’t worthy of a house designed by him. Thank God Kaufman took Wrights advise!

[@Sherman62]

Yes, and thankfully, more advanced concrete engineering has saved the beautiful house from collapsing under its own weight.

[@finscreenname]

From just this video you can see the house is worn and needs help. For being the premier house in the country, shelving sagging, chipped veneers, scratched wood work, a broken hinge cover and a raw wood block as a door stopper, all kinds of concrete issues....this house would sell for many millions, I expected more. From what I understand the house had issues from day one just because it was built over a river. Every boater has to deal with the same issues with a boat left on the water. Mold, rot, things swelling where they shouldn't and others cracking where they shouldn't. Back in the day you would have a craftsman handyman live on the property or at least a full time employee just to take care of the place and not let things get out of hand. Little things like scratched wood or broken whatever would be fixed immediately. This house is a luxury item and just the price you have to pay to have something like it. The same as if you had a big yacht (Capt and crew) or car collection like Leno.

[@suzettehenderson9278]

Did you visit Kentuck Knob or Polymath Park while you were in the vicinity?

[@MikeWSATX]

Before construction began Edgar Kaufman had an independent structural engineer review Mr. Wright's construction drawings. They predicted that the house would eventually tumble into the creek. Kaufman sent the report to Mr. Wright who responded with a scathing reply and warned that his client was not worthy of the house. They buried the engineer's report in the form work and proceeded with the project. In fact the cantilevers did sag considerably and might very well have failed had not a multimillion dollar restoration transformed the traditional reinforced concrete into post-tensioned beams. Perhaps they were too hasty in burying the engineer's concerns. But great art can very often overcome resistance, reality and in this case ..... even gravity.

[@lizinawe]

this is my favorite house.. and now my favorite video of it.l thanks.

[@hjordisrauker3233]

Amazing house nothing can beat. That will be my best house in my WHOLE life

[@kenjacobsen4467]

Great to see this from a carpenter's view -thanks!

[@ren7784]

Amazing! It's a place you would never want to leave.

[@vanzetti7]

Awesome man! Love your commentary. Would love to hear your thoughts on Pepe Leighey house.

[@shadrach6299]

I wonder what’s it’s really like to live with the constant water sound? What about the humidity?

[@shelbytomy07]

Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the best architecture who built US

[@bwanabwana9523]

I really love this house

[@cliffcox7643]

Beautiful, but sounds like a PITA to maintain.

[@อาคมมากบุญ-ภ7ฐ]

อย่างบายหลังนี้

[@eddavitt6359]

Thanks for this!

[@mcgloinm1]

I've watched this et al, and needless to say it's, well, ...+. But it's sad. Why? No one lives in it! Okay, okay the people that had it built, didn't really live in it, that is, it was for get a ways, holidays only. And I guess they make "some" money showing it, but....

[@josephyoung6749]

thermoplastic resin for that concrete or stucco!!!

[@markschuette3770]

ya cool house- BUT no one, in this day and age, should be allow to build on a public water resource.

[@อาคมมากบุญ-ภ7ฐ]

หาพรือถูก

[@jameshumphrey9939]

cost-prohibitive to build today and unlivable in the winter to today's needs .... double insulated windows - insulation ... then there was the issue of the cantilevered deck that was un under structured against the contractor's advisement .... cost 10 million to fix it and then should that beautiful natural wonder of a waterfall be defiled ?? natural materials - YES - organic NO

[@StarGateSG7]

If you had the money and used STEEL I-beams and X-beams as the supporting cantilever substructure and you poured actually WATERPROOF artificial rock made from high-strength concrete, ceramic flakes and carbon-composite fibres (i.e. HyperConcrete) into the cantilever forms rather than normal concrete, the ENTIRE house could be done for about $6 million U.S. HyperConcrete can be reinforced with normal rebar and steel I-Beams and X-Beams and is almost TOTALLY waterproof unlike general purpose concrete or real rock. It's DESIGNED for high traffic areas, swimming pools and artificial waterfalls. You can also shape it or carve it with tools to make it LOOK like mortared-together rock slabs and modern ceramic-based outdoor paints allow you to create ultra-realistic looking rock faces that will last HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of years. It's about three times the price of general purpose concrete BUT since you're using coated-for-anti-corrosion steel I-beams and X-beams for the base structure of the entire house, you can pour the rest of the house around those beams using simply plywood and 2x6 forms to safely build your OWN cantilevered Fallingwater House that WILL NOT sag on those very long cantilevers! Even the interior fireplace and those rock slab walls and floor can be made to look like natural rock using HyperConcrete. It also withstands the expansion/contraction cycles of both Night/Day and Winter/Summer temperature differences MUCH BETTER than real rock since its fibre reinforced AND has high compressive and high TENSILE strength ceramic flakes in it! You will spend about $250,000 on photorealistic 3D computer drawing renderings and some CAD/CAM finite element analysis to make sure all the steel beams and HyperConcrete support everything properly and around Three Million dollars on the volume of HyperConcrete needed for the same size house as Fallingwater and about $750,000 U.S. for four artists and rock carvers to used computer controlled tools to shape and carve the HyperConcrete so it looks and feels like real rock and another $250,000 for pro-level Hollywood set painters to paint that rock with totally waterproof glass-ceramic paints to LOOK like real rock at closeup examination. Then finally, you can spend another 1.5 million+ on triple glazed windows, heated floors, kitchen and shower tiling, modern air conditioning and heating system, modern kitchen appliances, Jacuzzi bathtubs and steam/massaging showers, custom wood furnishings and shelving, some wall paintings and other knick knacks and you will have a DUPLICATE of Fallingwater which will be MORE waterproof and last MUCH LONGER than the original! Even the Stream Bed itself can be made of HyperConcrete! --

[@nunliski]

The ubiquitous stone walls are hideous and dangerous.

[@digger7510]

It sucks

[@ElvenWisdom]

A real life Rivendell....absolute dream house of mine. Would love to take a tour one day. Wonderful video!

[@ralphlivingston894]

This was an excellent short video. I got to see features that I’ve never seen before and it was great to have the perspective of a real Carpenter. Great job.

[@TrindyForce]

I heard once that Frank used to say "If it doesn't leak, you haven't pushed the architecture far enough" and I suppose his 'water-proof' concrete is just one such example

[@meganvictoria1423]

that last scene when you took a self video is so adorable !!! thank you this is so educating for a student like me ^^

[@joeshmoe8912]

I love this home. Been there once and i am also a contractor. it is a site to see. I always thought it would be bigger than it is. Thank you for taking everyone with you on the trip. Nothing like the old mountains of pa.

[@designx8693]

I appreciate that you showed the flaws as well as the feats. Strange how the sidewalk is better scribed along the uneven rocks than the shelves inside.

[@steve19745]

This is such an amazing home ! built in 1935 it puts todays homes to shame and the little apartment is such an awesome idea plus the guest house !! this place is amazing

[@thefrub]

Very good video, I've never seen this house critiqued by a real builder before. So many details I've never heard about

[@SuperAlfaDogg]

Thanks for the perspective of a trim carpenter and the Soss hinges. Very much appreciated.

[@cheatcanyon1]

i believe the young man of the house added those bookshelves in his room. i dont believe frank would have covered a window like that.

[@lucziczac]

After seeing the desk with the cut-out to allow the door to open I’m not too sure about that...

[@RussMcClay]

Excellent to see some interesting details of the house! I'm going to guess the photographer is the one waving at the camera at the end. Good job!

[@jamesmcinnis208]

The real estate industry has succeeded in getting people to say "the home" instead of "the house."

[@FirstLast-uz6eq]

You are absolutely right.

[@finscreenname]

I have always said "the house" because "the home" meant something else entirely.

[@zachattack83]

Cool story.

[@studiodevelopers2467]

@@zachattack83 You can make a clone copy of this to live in...above any good property that has a stream and canyon

[@omarnei]

@@studiodevelopers2467 yeah, how much would that cost in michigan?

[@angusdraffan6656]

Soap into the stream!!!

[@TheUsername217]

This was built in 1935 let that sink in.

[@waynestroup5624]

One of the better video tours of the landmark in American residential architecture. From a carpenter, a contractor, a homebuilder. Now, I'd like to see a video from the perspective of a structural engineer who specializes in reinforced concrete. Structure follow Form. Structure falls from Form.

[@johntechwriter]

Thank you for a brief tour of America’s most storied house, from the perspective of a professional builder. While I appreciate the critiques of detail in the design and construction, I could not help but think that at times the narrator got distracted by the trees and lost sight of the forest. I suppose I was looking for a declaration, by a craftsman, of being in the presence of a dwelling that is as close to nature as a builder can get, while at the same time remaining faithfully human in function and scale.

[@sahbalaal7188]

When I muted the video, it looked much, much better! Using mediocrity to explain Beauty

[@loadedfun4764]

Nit picker...... enjoy the magic that was made and stop picking the house apart.

[@teslahertz4916]

Thank you for these detailed views of Fallingwater. It's a masterpiece.

[@spencerwilton5831]

What I wouldn't give for falling water. I have been in love with this house since I first saw it in a book aged about ten. Maybe one day I'll be able to build something similar in my own little piece of the planet.

[@deewaters8994]

I feel the same I was about that age (63 now).Wish I could visit it.Health and distance make it impossible.

[@sory4beinanonymous]

Same here. I grew up the next state over, always begging my parents to take me there whenever we passed ohio pyle. I’ve toured the house at least twice

[@19starfire84]

7 people don't understand architecture

[@jameshumphrey9939]

neither do i ....artifice is it ?? when you understand architecture you have lost sight of it ...... does anyone live her - no

[@jamesoncross7494]

Loud and wet. I wouldn't want to live there. I read it's had major problems and has been renovated 5 or 6 times. The engineering was not very good. Cool concept though.

[@nadiaperez5109]

Many tanks for this video. It has so many details!!!

[@splurcon]

Tried to go see it and they wouldn’t let us in because parking spaces were full 🤷‍♂️

[@QueenlySweetpea]

I would think a certain amount people would be finishing up their visit and leaving, probably after an hour or so wait time there would be parking spaces available. Didn't you wait it out for a while to eventually get it ?

[@อาคมมากบุญ-ภ7ฐ]

แขบเองช่วยไม่ได้

[@brussell639]

A few imperfections here and there, but overall, what a beautiful home!!! I would love living there!

[@catlady8324]

Frank Loyd Wrong is a total pretentious pain in the ass!

[@richardmckrell4899]

Don't the overhangs block the sun in the river pool that the family used? Seems like the house ruined things.

[@kirk4086]

If you go...please check out Polymath Park also! Its only about 30 minutes away...has 2 home designed by FLW, an 2 by one of his students! Well worth the time!

[@dennis1680]

Most irritating Mr. Scribe

[@Wallace459]

I have been there, it is inspirational!

[@JustAHuman-xq1nt]

I toured the Wright homes and buildings in Chicago which has the most. They are really quite cramped inside and the furniture is uncomfortable. The design is great.

[@meowsog4734]

amazing like wtf men

[@rickdeckard9810]

4:03 is it possible the carpenters wanted to leave some play for potential movement of the wall or building?

[@dalilacolombo3051]

Hi, I need to use the video for a printed material to use at school and I need permission. How can I get it? thanks

[@creaturesamongcreatures]

I feel like you'd get hearing damage from constantly listening to a river.

[@mohammadrezaakbari4301]

wow .details

[@paulettepinheiro6907]

Great presentation! Thank you!

[@Jugozvuk]

THE TOP AMERICAN ARChITECT and maybe the top worlds arhitect at his best! Does anybody live there NOW?!?!

[@sirticket4214]

dan simmons brought me here ;)

[@shadowdance4666]

A mad genius if there ever was one

[@anonymousguy585]

lol @ :12 that voice crack

[@chrischurch4551]

It's a neat house, but imagine an architect today building a house that leaks like a sieve and need endless expensive repairs. Toss in some of those bad scribes and the counter being cut out for the window like an afterthought

[@lyudmila2882]

Oh, but architects today DO build buildings that leak, or the exterior tiles pop off and worse. Still, they build an adventurous building then fix the problems.

[@rondevous5685]

It’s the sort of thing you always want to do, but for one reason or another, keep putting off. On a picture-perfect autumn day in mid October, we drove to Fallingwater. It was a chilly Saturday morning, and the turning leaves were in full display. The ride there was magnificent; the return trip, with the sun behind us, would be even better. Ever since I first heard the name, Frank Lloyd Wright, and I learned of the futuristic home he’d designed that would rest on top of a waterfall, I’d wanted to see it. The very idea was crazy - like the mile-high skyscraper Wright had once proposed for the City of Chicago. While that plan remained an idea on paper, the house often referred to as “Wright’s Masterpiece” was real, had been lived in, and was only an hour’s drive away. What I wasn’t prepared for was the emotional connection I felt with the family. It began with the tour guide, who casually listed the rules we were to follow, and then in an almost off-hand manner, lowered her voice to almost a whisper and said, “As we enter the house, we will enter through the same door the family would have.” It still gives me chills. The tour group of 10 to 15 people entered in single file and in silence, almost tiptoeing like burglars invading someone's dwelling, cautiously moving about as if to not wake any ghosts that may be looming about. More than a house, it is the home of the Kaufmann family, and you arrive at a snapshot in time decades ago, where personal possessions lie about. It’s as if you’re walking through the home of your grandparents after they’ve passed. Photographs of smiling friends and family taken out on the terrace, or laughing in oddly dated bathing suits as they swim in the water that ceaselessly runs under the house, lend a sweet sadness to the experience. And although there are dozens of other people at different stages of the tour throughout the house,a respectful silence remains, amidst the ever-present soft background music of the waterfall. A visit to Fallingwater is an emotional experience unlike anything I’ve found when visiting museums or the buildings where the rich and famous have lived. I’m sure we’ll visit again, perhaps in spring time, when the Rhododendrons are in bloom.

[@arlenegojocco7518]

Excellent video! So far, this is the only one that describes the house in detail from a construction viewpoint! Truly grateful for that. I like that you started and ended on the path leading to the house because it shows that parking didn't intrude in the sanctity of the design and environment. One detail other videos take for granted. Fallingwater, here I come!

[@vc8424]

Thank you for the details about the finish carpentry. What most people don’t understand is that modern minimalism actually is insanely more difficult for builders and carpenters since joints can’t simply be covered up by slapping a piece of trim over it. To this day we are still learning new ways on how to bring together different materials and surfaces ‘seamlessly’. Now just imagine, that at the time of FLW, none of the builders and craftsman have never even seen stuff like this, let alone have to build it. I imagine there are a number of ‘interesting’ solutions like the ones you noted in this video littered throughout his buildings. I’d like to find a good book about what is what like to actually build one of his buildings.

[@fhinnes]

Now this is how you make a video about this house! Just watch a video of a guy flying his drone around this house, but he filmed more the drone than the house. I also like how you pointed out imperfections!

[@verdugohomestead3175]

I would love to see an example how you would scribe around similar stones like in Falling Water. I’m trying to learn the trade

[@eldiablo3794]

With all those windows I can't help but think how high their utility bill must be, and that is probably poorly insulated during the Winter months lol

[@josephyoung6749]

I love the gravel path leading to house... the ultimate form of architectural anticipation is tactile gravel under foot!

[@pearcebernstone9659]

Who else is using this video for architectural drawing in manhasset high school?

[@christinemichele2318]

I loved listening to your carpentry critiques. Subscribed!

[@SRS4859]

Frank Lloyd Wright.... beyond measure.

[@viktordtz2080]

Nice views. Pure genius can imagine that...

[@tomphoenix8697]

A great monument to the utter idiocy of modernism.

[@luismarquez7917]

I was in awe once there.