Falling water

The natural beauty surrounding Fallingwater is intimately connected to the understanding and appreciation of the house itself. The genius of Frank Lloyd Wright to physically and spiritually embrace the natural world is captured in the daring and innovative architecture set among the forest landscape of Bear Run. When the continental plate containing North and South America collided with the continental plate containing Africa, about million years ago, it had a big impact on what would become the Bear Run landscape—multiple layers of sandstone now known as Pottsville sandstone , shale, and limestone were forced up into long parallel ridges.

Falling water frank lloyd wright

Since then, moving water has gradually eroded the softer limestone and shale, creating the stream we know as Bear Run, which cascades from more resistant sandstone ledges to create a series of waterfalls. Bear Run—and indeed almost all of southwestern Pennsylvania—lies within the Appalachian Plateaus and Mountains. This long and relatively narrow physiographic region stretches from northern Georgia to southern portions of New England.

The terrain consists of ridges, plateaus, steep slopes, and dramatic gorges—landform variations that provide a vast range of orientation, elevation, and moisture that, in turn, dictates the various expressions of the forest. One cannot fully comprehend the intricate connection between Fallingwater and its environment without first examining the ground from which it sprung.

For centuries, the impact of water upon land has yielded a landscape of breathtaking beauty in the rural glens of Southwestern Pennsylvania. The combination of these minerals along with timber and waterways fueled an explosion of industry in the nineteenth century. Seams of soft coal were readily stripped away, gouging huge holes in the hillsides, dismantling forests, removing soil, and altering and polluting waterways.