Fallingwater and Historic Preservation at 50: A New Exhibit

In 1982 the Museum of Modern Art commissioned renowned architectural modelmaker Paul Bonfilio to create a 3/8-inch:1-foot scale model of Fallingwater, the summer home of Pittsburgh department store magnate Edgar Kaufman, nestled in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The model took Bonfilio more than two years to execute — not quite as long as it had taken builders to construct Fallingwater itself (1935–38) but long enough to provide Bonfilio with a renewed appreciation for the genius and vision of Wright and his most famous creation. Upon its completion, Fallingwater was almost immediately hailed as a masterpiece, catapulting its architect to international fame.

This May, thanks to a loan from the Museum of Modern Art, visitors to The State Museum of Pennsylvania will be able to see this unusually detailed model as part of Fallingwater and Historic Preservation at 50, a special exhibit that coincides with the 50th anniversary of Fallingwater’s listing in the National Register of Historic Places in July 1974.

At the time of the National Register listing, Pennsylvania’s official historic preservation program was still in its infancy. S.K. Stevens, longtime executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC), chair of the first national advisory council on historic preservation, and a renowned leader in the field of public history, had been one of the architects of the federal legislation that authorized State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs) across the country, responsible for administration of the National Register in addition to numerous other historic preservation programs in their respective states. William Wewer, Stevens’ immediate successor, became Pennsylvania’s first state historic preservation officer, a title that continues to reside with PHMC’s executive director.

PHMC’s nomination of Fallingwater to the new National Register was hardly a surprise: Wright’s masterpiece has been variously referred to as America’s most famous home, the most recognizable building in North America, and the quintessential articulation of Wright’s ambition to create architecture in unity with the natural environment. Throughout the summer of 1973 and 1974, the small but productive SHPO staff worked with the National Park Service and independent consultants to photo document the site and articulate the building’s significance across various categories, including the stature of its architect — likely the best known in the world — and “the nature and style of the building”  — an understatement if there ever was one.

The display of the Fallingwater model at The State Museum will be supplemented by the archival photographs and architectural drawings of Fallingwater’s interior and exterior features that were used as documentation for its National Register nomination (and for its eventual National Historic Landmark status two years later). In addition to gaining a greater understanding of Fallingwater, visitors will learn about the role that SHPO has played and continues to play as the clearinghouse for historic resources in Pennsylvania nominated to the National Register — of which Fallingwater is the most nationally and internationally recognizable example.

Although nothing can replace the experience of visiting Fallingwater in person, this special exhibit will allow those who have not visited Fallingwater to better comprehend the genius of its design and construction. For those who have had the pleasure of visiting Fallingwater, the exhibit provides the opportunity to experience Wright’s masterpiece in a way that only scale models can do — much like dioramas for natural history — namely, to see the relationship between building and environment on a more human scale.

Fallingwater and Historic Preservation at 50 will be on display in Brockerhoff Hall on Floor 1 of The State Museum of Pennsylvania from May 17, 2024, to January 5, 2025.

Curtis Miner, Ph.D., is chief of interpretation at The State Museum of Pennsylvania.