How America’s greatest architect doomed his masterpiece

W hen Frank Lloyd Wright designed his flagship Fallingwater building, he did not include an ugly plastic bucket in the living room plans.

But the leaks at the Unesco world heritage site in Pennsylvania have become so bad that conservators are resorting to drastic measures to preserve the modernist masterpiece.

“Basically we’re trying to waterproof Fallingwater,” said Sandy Spagnola, 75, a retired art teacher and tour guide, as a persistent drip fills the bucket.

Completed in 1937, Fallingwater was conceived as a weekend retreat for the Kaufmann family, the owners of the largest department store in nearby Pittsburgh at the time, to escape the pollution of the city.

They hired Lloyd Wright, who is widely considered America’s greatest architect, to build their home. He created a series of cantilevered terraces jutting out over a waterfall to encourage the family’s enjoyment of the fresh air. The Kaufmanns, who rejected air-conditioning despite the steamy heat of summer, proved to be the ideal clients.

Combining locally quarried stone with concrete painted in the light ochre of the Pennsylvanian forest, Fallingwater became the ultimate expression of Lloyd Wright’s theory of “organic architecture”.

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