A private home in the woods over a stream over a waterfall, it would have fallen into the stream by now but it’s been saved at monumental cost. Originally built for about $140,000 it recently cost $11.5 million to repair. That’s an economic disaster but why?
Frank Lloyd Wright was 5 foot six inches tall. That explains why the ceilings at Fallingwater are so low. They seemed OK for him but not for the rest of the people.
Here’s the major problem.
Fallingwater is built of concrete with steel bars. Wright didn’t understand that because of the change in temperature at Fallingwater a 20 foot long piece of concrete grows almost one quarter of an inch while a 20 foot long piece of steel only grows about an eight of an inch. The first cycle of changing temperature separated the reinforcing steel from the concrete. The concrete was too weak so it cracked.
Reinforced concrete is very different than pre-stressed concrete. Pre-stressing at Fallingwater would have eliminated the temperature caused failures.
Or, Wright could have reinforced the concrete by putting the reinforcing steel in the top of the cantilevered concrete where it would have resisted the bending of the concrete instead of at the bottom where it did almost no good. The tops of the cantilevered shapes are in tension. Concrete is weak in tension and very strong in compression. The steel reinforcing is strong in tension so it could have helped support the cantilevered concrete if it was used at the top of the beams but contractors usually put the steel in the bottom.
Wright was also a bit pig-headed about taking advice from people. The owner, Kaufman secretly added more steel to the concrete but it wasn’t enough and it wasn’t put in the right places.
Fallingwater is a design masterpiece. Wright wasn’t enough of an engineer but he was an innovative master architect. Fallijngwater has been repaired.
The story ends when you see it. It has to be seen to experience how successful the design is. The genius is the creation of the experience, the human emotional response to a great design. Wright’s engineering wasn’t good but thanks to engineers it’s been fixed and it’s there to witness the greatness of the human mind of Frank Lloyd Wright. Genius.
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