From left: H. Mark Weidman/Alamy; Daniel Wilson/Alamy
You hear Fallingwater long before you see it.
I had traveled to the Pennsylvania home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright with my architect brother Ben.
As Wright followers, wed dreamed of making this pilgrimage since we were kids.
From left: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, in southwestern Pennsylvania, is one of the architect’s most celebrated works; cantilevered terraces extend out in every direction.Credit:From left: H. Mark Weidman/Alamy; Daniel Wilson/Alamy
But seen through the trees, Fallingwater at first looked long and low.
Its stacked-sandstone walls and the wings of its impressively cantilevered concrete terraces all extended outward.
It felt hunkered down in the hillside reaching horizontally, rather than stretching skyward.
The interior architecture of Fallingwater draws visitors’ eyes to the surrounding woods.Daniel Wilson/Alamy
Id nearly forgotten that my kid brother wasnt really a kid anymore.
The conversation made me realize that representations of the architects designs are ubiquitous.
After walking through the door, I felt an immediate sense of compression.
The architecture seemed to pull my entire body outside.
Miller took us to the familys former bedrooms.
In each corner of the building, everything fits together like the pieces of a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.
The tours also helped us appreciate the connections between how people decorated and how they lived.
I understood why Wright didnt want visitors to have this vantage right away.
Only by occupying the house spiraling up its stairs and through its rooms can you understand it.
Not long before the pandemic, our parents sold the house where Ben and I spent our childhoods.
Those live on, wherever we go.
