Detour Pit Stop #29: Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, Pennsylvania, USA
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the original petrolheads. He incorporated garages into his homes as early as 1909 and invented the car port.
Of all the many buildings Lloyd Wright designed, Fallingwater, just outside of Pittsburgh is perhaps the most spectacular. As the name suggests it is built on top of a waterfall, uncompromising in its location, literally letting the natural world inside. As a result maintaining the building against the will of the elements is an expensive full-time job, but that does mean it is open to the paying public.
Wright was a real auto enthusiast and owned cars by Bentley, Cord, Mercedes, Jaguar and Cadillac and always felt that, unlike horses, cars shouldn’t be confined to external stables and that they should be featured within the homes he designed. In fact he first designed a three-car garage with car wash and inspection pit for bicycle and automobile maker Frederick C Robie in 1909.
Fallingwater is no exception and features garaging for the three cars of department store mogul EJ Kaufman who Wright built the house for in 1937. It’s a truly stunning building and well worth a Pittsburgh pit stop.
Words Nik Berg Twitter | Instagram
Photography Tim Wildsmith / Unsplash