Artists like cats; soldiers like dogs.

The Falling water .

Architect - Frank Lloyd Wright
Date -1934 , 1938, 1948   timeline
Location - Ohiopyle, (Bear Run), Pennsylvania Building Type - house
Construction System - reinforced concrete, stone
Context - rural
Style - Expressionist Modern
Notes - S.230. Edgar J. Kaufmann residence. Cantilevers dramatically over rock outcropping and rushing stream.

Design and construction

The structural design for Fallingwater was undertaken by Wright in association with staff engineers Mendel Glickman and William Wesley Peters, who had been responsible for the columns featured in Wright’s revolutionary design for the Johnson Wax Headquarters.

Preliminary plans were issued to Kaufmann for approval on October 15, 1935, after which Wright made a further visit to the site and provided a cost estimate for the job. In December 1935 an old rock quarry was reopened to the west of the site to provide the stones needed for the house’s walls. Wright only made periodic visits during construction, instead assigning his apprentice Robert Mosher as his permanent on-site representative. The final working drawings were issued by Wright in March 1936 with work beginning on the bridge and main house in April 1936.

The strong horizontal and vertical lines are a distinctive feature of Fallingwater

The construction was plagued by conflicts between Wright, Kaufmann, and the construction contractor. Uncomfortable with what he saw as Wright's insufficient experience using reinforced concrete, Kaufmann had the architect's daring cantilever design reviewed by a firm of consulting engineers. Upon receiving their report, Wright took offense and immediately requested Kaufmann to return his drawings and indicated he was withdrawing from the project. Kaufmann relented to Wright's gambit and the engineer’s report was subsequently buried within a stone wall of the house.

After a visit to the site in June 1936, Wright rejected the stonemasonry of the bridge, which had to be rebuilt.

For the cantilevered floors, Wright and his team used upside down T-shaped beams integrated into a monolithic concrete slab which both formed the ceiling of the space below and provided resistance against compression. The contractor, Walter Hall, also an engineer, produced independent computations and argued for increasing the reinforcing steel in the first floor’s slab. Wright refused the suggestion. While some sources state that it was the contractor who quietly doubled the amount of reinforcement, according to others,it was at Kaufmann’s request that his consulting engineers redrew Wright’s reinforcing drawings and doubled the amount of steel specified by Wright. In addition, the contractor did not build in a slight upward incline in the formwork for the cantilever to compensate for the settling and deflection of the cantilever. Once the concrete formwork was removed, the cantilever developed a noticeable sag. Upon learning of the steel addition without his approval, Wright recalled Mosher

With Kaufmann’s approval, the consulting engineers arranged for the contractor to install a supporting wall under the main supporting beam for the west terrace. When Wright discovered it on a site visit he had Mosher discreetly remove the top course of stones. When Kaufmann later confessed to what had been done, Wright showed him what Mosher had done and pointed out that the cantilever had held up for the past month under test loads without the wall’s support.

In October 1937, the main house was completed.Cost

The home and guest house cost US$155,000, broken down as follows: house $75,000; finishing and furnishing $22,000; guest house, garage and servants' quarters $50,000; architect's fee $8,000.

The total project price of $155,000, adjusted for inflation, is the equivalent of approximately $2.4 million in 2009. A more accurate reflection of the relative cost of the project in its time is that the cost of restoration alone in 2002 was reported at $11.4 million.Use of the house

Fallingwater was the family's weekend home from 1937 to 1963. In 1963, Kaufmann, Jr. donated the property to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. In 1964, it was opened to the public as a museum. Nearly six million people have visited the house as of January 2008. Despite its location in a remote corner of Pennsylvania (two hours' drive from Pittsburgh), the house (according to the informational pamphlet distributed on the grounds) currently hosts more than 150,000 visitors each year.

Mumbai Meri Jaan..................

its truly said that, once you've lived in Mumbai, you can't live anywhere else..
everything about this place is just so addictive...
The streets, food, peppy crowd, environment, the hot girls, sexy guys :P
everything, specially the night life..
i didn't realize this till i had to leave Mumbai and live in Goa and then Nashik ...
Mumbai is a place which i end up comparing to every other city i visit, yeah such is the awesomeness of Mumbai.
I know sounds crazy that Mumbai > Goa ..
But the mumbaikars will understand this..
Mumbai is the only place where you get JAIN CHICKEN ..
where Vadapav is more preferable than a MacD burger..
where Ghanta is officially used instead of No
Mumbai's Dabbawalas are more trusted in, than Dominos..
its just the best ever :')

“It's so lonely when you don't even know yourself.”

Mother & child- pic by creative eye. (all rights reserved)

                                         

 Mama, she has taught me well

Told me when I's young

Son, your life's an open book

Don't close it 'fore it's done

The brightest flame burns quickest

That's what I heard her say

A son's heart's owed to mother

But I must find my way