Visitors getting unique view of Fallingwater during major preservation project
Special tours offering guests rare look of waterproofing work
Every house needs a new roof every few decades, even architectural marvels like Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.
But Fallingwater isn’t designed or built like most homes, so painstaking work is underway to repair and waterproof its flat roofs and iconic terraces to preserve the historic house nestled above Bear Run in the Laurel Highlands of Fayette County.
“This major preservation intervention is basically to combat water infiltration issues,” said Justin Gunther, who serves as Fallingwater’s director and is vice president of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, which operates the property. “We’re essentially trying to make Fallingwater watertight.”
The three-year preservation project has nearly reached its midpoint after beginning last year as part of a larger master plan updated in 2019 upon Fallingwater’s inclusion as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But what’s different now is the scaffolding began enveloping the house in December with insulated work areas to allow crews to make exterior repairs during the winter off-season.
Photographs shared recently online show the unusual site as a stretch of frigid weather in February caused the Bear Run falls that run underneath the house to freeze, making it appear as though the scaffolding was sprouting from the snowy landscape.
“It’s rare for the waterfall to completely freeze solid, so I think it caused some dramatic imagery,” Gunther said.
But beyond the photogenic nature of the steel supports rising from frozen falls, there is important work being done to preserve Fallingwater for generations to come. Gunther said the $7 million preservation project includes replacing and waterproofing the assemblies on the flat roofs and terraces, flashing updates, performing extensive masonry work such as repointing all of the stonework and doing grout injection to fill the stone masonry walls so water can’t travel into the house, along with conservation of the steel window and door frames.
“We identified a full roster of preservation work that we needed to complete to ensure Fallingwater’s preservation looking into the future,” he said.
It’s part of the first master plan update since 1999, and Fallingwater’s biggest preservation project since the post-tensioning support work was performed on the cantilevers in the early 2000s to effectively stop the house from sagging. Gunther said like any other house, Fallingwater needs both regular maintenance and major work to keep it in pristine condition, albeit these home improvement projects are anything but routine.
“Because of the complexity of the design, and with Wright pushing the conventional notion of design, it’s more complex to take care of Fallingwater. Sometimes (Wright’s designs) have more challenges with keeping the water out with flat roofs,” Gunther said. “Everyone has to replace the roof of their house every 25 years or paint their house every 15 years, so this is kind of a comprehensive project to combat water issues and protect Fallingwater for many years in the future.”
The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, which in 1963 took stewardship of the house from the Kaufmann family and for whom Wright designed the home nearly three decades earlier, is seizing on the rare opportunity to educate the public about the preservation work with special tours beginning this month.
“We thought it was a great opportunity to educate people on the preservation work and the challenges we have for houses like Fallingwater and how to preserve it and how we care about this place,” Gunther said.
The “Preservation-In-Action” tours will run from March 14 until April 1 and offer visitors a chance to peek behind the scaffolding to see the work for themselves. The guided tour is $39 per person and runs daily except Wednesday, while the in-depth tour is $89 per person and is only on weekends.
The scaffolding will then be removed in early April and the house will resume its normal tour schedule “without the visual disruptions,” Gunther said. But other preservation work will continue before the scaffolding goes up again next winter with the overall project expected to be completed in 2026 just ahead of Fallingwater’s 90s anniversary celebration.
Fallingwater is located on Route 381 in Stewart Township about four miles north of Ohiopyle.
Go online to www.fallingwater.org for more information about Fallingwater or to purchase advance tickets for the preservation tours.