On July 7, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee announced the addition of Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic house Fallingwater to the World Heritage Site list, making the home the second site on the list in Pennsylvania.
Frank Lloyd Wright, perhaps the most widely known American architect, designed Fallingwater in 1935. The house, located in Mill Run, Fayette County, was the weekend home of Edgar and Lilianne Kaufmann. Wright designed the home as a series of cantilevered planes that jut out over a waterfall, making the home appear to hover above the water. In 1963, Kaufmann gave the property to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, which continues to operate the house as a historic site and museum today.
UNESCO added Fallingwater along with seven other twentieth-century buildings designed by Wright. The committee selected Wright’s work for the list because of his important influence on modern architecture in Europe. The Guggenheim Museum in New York City was also among the Wright properties added to the World Heritage List.
Independence Hall in Philadelphia is the other Pennsylvania site on the list. The committee added it in 1979 because of the its significance as the site of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.