Frank Lloyd Wright's struggles with officialdom

[SDR]

So, according to that, it's unknown whether the extra steel helped or hurt ?


I have re-read Donald Hoffman's chapter on the construction of Fallingwater. (It was Bob Mosher who reported hearing Wright mumble about Fallingwater being "too heavy," while in bed with pneumonia -- in the winter of 1938-39.) The four concrete beams supporting the living room cantilever, each two feet wide, were reinforced with 12 one-inch-square steel bars -- a greater number, apparently, than Wright and Peters had specified. And the floor was made level, with no upward camber to counter the expected deflection. When Wright found out about the extra steel, apprentice Mosher was recalled to Taliesin, and Tafel sent in his place.

Wright designed the structure in reinforced concrete, which had eventually to be reinforced again, 60 years later, with tension members. I wonder if this -- and the 7" deflection, over the decades -- could have been avoided by using large steel members in place of the reinforced concrete beams.

SDR

[SDR]

The previous post mentions and quotes from Donald Hoffman, FLLW's Fallingwater (Dover, 1978). In a more recent book, Merchant Prince and Master Builder (Richard L Cleary; U of Washington Press, 1999), we read that "Recent engineering studies of the house. . .suggest that even with the additional steel, the reinforcing is inadequate to carry the combined load of the first floor cantilever and the second floor, which bears on it through the steel T-bars set in line with the front living room windows." The notes identify the source of this information as "Fallingwater Structural Reinforcing Progress Report," 16 May 1997, prepared by Robert Silman Associates, for the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.

Thus, rather than supporting the extensive second floor balcony terrace (the roof of the living room), which extends beyond the living room windows mentioned above, by cantilevering it from the piers rising through the living room from the bolsters and walls below -- like a higher set of branches extending from the trunk of a tree -- Wright suppors the outer end of the balcony from the furthest point of the (cantilevered) living room -- comparable to supporting the upper branches of a tree from the ends of some lower branches. . .

SDR

[Roderick Grant]

I met Bob Mosher not long before he died, and his recollection of his work on FW confirms the story in Hoffmann's book. Bob was convinced the house would not have endured without the added reinforcement. One other problem with the concrete is that two grades were used. The interior, reinforced structural concrete was harder than the finish layer, which caused the outer layer to crack and, in some places, to fall off.

[egads]

A man's home is his hassle:



This is the cover over the stairs to the guest house, take right above the bridge.

[Mobius]

You may or may not be interested to learn of my experience when I built my version of Wright's Jacobs #1.

Initially I created my own drawings using nothing but the 1.2m x .6m grid (slightly larger than FLWs 4'x2' grid) and expressed dimensions as ratios of this grid.

When we had the working drawings done by our architect, I had a lengthy discussion about the measurements.

4 building companies had already declined to build the house, based on my floor plans, and elevations. In every case they said "our guys can't build this". Basically because it wasn't a box with an overhanging pyramid on top, which is all most modern builders know how to build.

The architect simply informed me that NO building company would (or could!) build a house using only a grid pattern design (even if it were marked on the floor) and not only that, but no building consent would (or could) be provided for such a design.

And that was the end of that conversation.

[SDR]

Ouch ! So, it would appear that people in New Zealand might expect the same sort of pig-headedness -- lack of tolerance for any degree of novelty in building design -- that citizens in Australia have experienced (as reported to us by Laurie Virr) ?

I'm glad for you that you persevered and got your dream built.

I wonder if, at this late date, you are able to post some of the very interesting drawings that you and/or your architect produced, and which we got to see briefly at one point ?

Stephen