> -----Original Message-----
> From: Trelstad, Derek
> Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2000 1:39 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Took the train to Harrisburg...
>
>
> Of course, you cannot get in the house (legally)
> after hours, but you can wander through the stream, up behind the
> house, and
> get a much better sense of the place. Once I'd had a chance to
> sit by myself
> for a while I found the house started to grow on me. And, that
> running water
> is perfect backdrop for contemplation of the pronunciation of
> Youghigeny...


This is precisely the nature (sorry, couldn't resist) of my first encounter
with Fallingwater.  It sits within the boundaries of the Western
Pennsylvania Conservancy lands.  Three college mates and I rode from Oxford
to the conservancy headquarters/nature center, which is quite near
Fallingwater, parked the car there, grabbed our trusty USGS maps, and headed
down the mountain.  Upon reaching the "Yock-i-gain-ee," we headed downstream
a short ways, and began hiking up Bear Run from its mouth.  Immersed in the
rhododendron and gently caressed by the burble of falling water, around 3:30
PM we rounded the boulder and there above us was Fallingwater.

You cannot fully appreciate Fallingwater by way of the guardhouse.  You must
become fully steeped in its native environment to understand how masterful
its siting is and how perfectly right for that place it is.  As a sculptural
environment, it is unparalleled.  As habitable space, that is another
matter.  But one expects to make sacrifices when living within and among a
sculpture.

I just got back from the City Council Chambers where we succeeding in
gaining a six-month extension on life for the Catalano House: the
internationally known "Raleigh House" of 1954 by Eduardo Catalano.  It is
for all intents and purposes a ruin, and was finally declared unsafe.  Its
magnificent roof, that remarkable soft graphite pencil stroke of an idea,
has failed, draping itself across the glass box beneath it.  Restoration is
not possible, only reconstruction.  It too was a nearly uninhabitable
dwelling with single glazed walls, no roof insulation, inadequately-sized
ductwork, and support spaces like bedrooms measured by the micronanometer.
But oh, how it defined space.  One expects to make sacrifices when living
within a sculpture.

Sign me, Dan the Man Rodin