How You Can Help
In 2009, 46 years after the Conservancy first opened Fallingwater to the public, we welcomed a record 161,811 visitors to the Frank Lloyd Wright masterwork. Visitation to the iconic house has grown steadily over the decades, and we are very pleased to fulfill our promise to Edgar Kaufmann jr. by welcoming people from the world over to experience this remarkable place.
Fallingwater
We balance this commitment to outreach with an equally firm commitment to the preservation of Fallingwater — so that it may continue to inspire people for generations to come. We adhere to the highest preservation standards for the house, its furniture and collections, and our activities in 2009 included several projects to maintain the integrity of this work of art.
We also provided educational programs and learning experiences at Fallingwater, in order to stimulate new ideas in people of all ages and provide opportunities for reflection about Wright’s approach to architecture. We continued to expand educational programming for local students through the Wright in Our Backyard program in 2009. Supported by donations, this program provides opportunities for K-12 students in economically challenged areas to visit Fallingwater with all expenses paid, including transportation — and participate in interactive classes that provide learning opportunities in art, architecture, math, ecology and other disciplines.
Bear Run School restoration
We began work to restore the nearby Bear Run School, a project that will be completed in mid-2010 and will provide visiting students with dedicated space for study and reflection about Fallingwater. The century-old, one-room schoolhouse was converted by the Kaufmann family into a residence during the 1950s, and more recently had been used for offices and storage. This project restores the school to its original, intended use and gives it new life.
An invaluable collection of Kaufmann family correspondence was donated to the Conservancy by Aldo Radoczy in 2009. This new collection, which consists primarily of letters written from the 1910s to 1980s, includes numerous references to Frank Lloyd Wright and other seminal figures of the modern movement and provides scholars with fresh insights into the lives of the family that built Fallingwater.
Fallingwater offers educational programs for people of all ages.
In addition, we offered a range of lectures, exhibitions and seminars about Frank Lloyd Wright and Fallingwater for learners of all ages and interests.
The stewardship of a 75-year-old house above a waterfall requires vigilant ongoing maintenance and preservation work. In 2009, we began raising funds to replace all of Fallingwater’s window glass. The Window Legacy Fund, announced in mid-2009, enables donors to “own” a piece of Fallingwater — a framed piece of old window glass — when they endow a window of their choosing. We reached one-third of our fundraising goal for the fund in this first year.
Other preservation work included repairs to the central living room ceiling and the downstream side of Bear Run Bridge. Also in 2009, we implemented various sustainability upgrades throughout the Fallingwater site that have reduced electrical usage in the main house and surrounding buildings. These upgrades help to ensure the house will continue to symbolize living in harmony with nature.