THE GEIGER DATABASE


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Frank Lloyd Wright commissions

Frank LLoyd Wright Archives Commission NUMBERS

John Geiger identified over 6,300 Frank Lloyd Wright project drawings in his database. The Frank Lloyd Wright Archives is the primary source for the bulk of Wright project drawings. The inventory system developed by the Wright Archives plays an important role in understanding notes and other references found throughout the Geiger database. This search presents projects and drawing numbers according to the Wright Archives assignments. Drawings held in other collections may appear integrated into the scheme by Geiger through speculative placement indicated with a question mark.

INFORMATION FOR PROJECT NUMBER 3602

Weekend House for Mr. and Mrs. Edgar J. Kaufman, Sr., "Fallingwater" [Bear Run, Pennsylvania] (1935)

Note: The following information concerning this project represents original research and analysis by John Geiger, and is based in his long and detailed study of the Frank Lloyd Wright literature as well as personal contacts with members of the Taliesin Fellowship and architectural historians. In addition, he added his own categories of building type and compositional form, as well as other points of consideration that he deemed important to understanding of the design.

Name of client: Kaufmann, Sr., Edgar J..

Sobriquet or alternative place name: Fallingwater.

Design Status (as of 2011): Executed.

Occupancy form or use: HOUSING/Residential/Single Family.

Principal building materials: MASONRY/Stone, concrete.

Number of drawings for this project detailed in the database: 51.

Drawing Number and Description

3602.??2     Cross Section of all levels
3602.??6     First floor plan
3602.012     Cross seections, three
3602.030     Kitchen cabinets
3602.035     Glass stair hatch details
3602.045     Elevations, three, studies
3602.049     Elevation, early study
3602.050     Perspective, no rendering
3602.052     Light standard
3602.060     Cross section all levels
3602.079     Cabinets living room
3602.096     Alterations to dining space
3602.108     Bathroom rearrangement
3602.110     Stair to plunge pool
3602.110     Stairway to plunge pool
3602.141     Living room elevations
3602.145     Door frame details
3602.153     Fireplace kettle

Individuals recorded as contributing to project:

Note: Not everyone who contributed to a project may be named; only those whose participation has been confirmed from a source appear above. Occasionally names presented as contributors to a project may seem chronologically anomalous. This usually occurs when an individual prepared drawings for publicity, exhibition, or publication long after the original date of a commission.

Howe, John
Mosher, Robert Keel
Wright, Frank Lloyd
Working drawings coordinator: Mosher, Robert Keel
Working drawings coordinator: Tafel FAIA, Edgar
Structural engineering: Peters, William Wesley
Structural engineering: Glickman, Mendel
Structural engineering: Dombar, Abrom
Construction supervision: Mosher, Robert Keel
Construction supervision: Tafel, Edgar
Construction supervision: Dombar, Abrom

Plan type: Fallingwater.

Note: Records a category devised by Geiger to classify the types of floor plans found in Frank Lloyd Wright projects to categorize types of roof structure. These terms were applied consistently through a choice list on Column [PLANTYPE] in Table MMTFDRAWINGS FILE, and may be searched.

Roof type: Flat.

Note: Records a category devised by Geiger to classify the types of roof structure found in Frank Lloyd Wright projects. These terms were applied consistently through a choice list on Column [ROOFTYPE] in Table MMTFDRAWINGS FILE, and may be searched.

Project Drawing Date Range

Note: Dates for preliminary and working drawings, as well as the start and completion of construction, appear here only when present in the database. Through careful study of original, reproduced, or published Wright drawings, John Geiger developed an elaborate granulation for design process dates and their attributions. Such information is largely available only for Wright projects dating from the mid-1930s until 1959. Sources were often footnoted by an alphanumeric system, but the references are sometimes missing from the locations where they were intended to be recorded; the relationship between footnote letter or numeral and reference is absent. In order to retain the presence of available information, citations are here shown grouped together in one comment field. Some understanding of the intended source may be discovered in remaining notes or frequently cited publications which appear in the comment field. The relevance of references provided by John Geiger can often be recovered through examination of the publications used in his research.See the list of principal bibliographical sources used for this purpose.

Date recorded by John Geiger for chronological sorting: September 22, 1935.

Preliminary drawings date: January 30, 1936.

Notes And References

Comments by John Geiger and/or sources of attribution Friedland, Roger, and Zellman, Harold. The Fellowship: The Untold Story of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Talisein Fellowship (New York: Regan, 2006), p. 288, Dombar.

Note: The information shown above is collected from a series of data table columns intended originally to record not only comments or notes, but also to cite sources of attribution for dates assigned to the various stages of drawing preparation in the design process. As with any primary archival source material, the references and sources of attribution shown here should be consulted where possible to affirm the data provided.

This commission is referenced and/or illustrated in the following publications:

Cleary, Richard. Merchant Prince and Master Builder: Edgar J. Kaufmann and Frank Lloyd Wright. Seattle, Washington: Universitry of Washington Press. [ISBN: 0-88039-036-0].
Cleary, Richard (editor). Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward. New York: Skira/ Rizzoli. [ISBN: 978-0-8478-3262-0].
Drexler, Arthur. The Drawings of Frank Lloyd Wright. New York: Horizon Press. [ISBN: 0-8180-0019-8].
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly: 2003, Vol. 14, No. 1. Phoenix, Arizona: Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Kaufmann, Jr., Edgar. Frank Lloyd Wright: Drawings for a Living Architecture. New York: Horizon Press.
Levine, Neil. The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Princeton, New Jersery: Princeton University Press. [ISBN: 0-691-03371-4].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright: The Masterworks. New York: Rizzoli. [ISBN: 0-8478-1715-6].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright Drawings: Masterworks from the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives. New York: Harry H. Abrams Inc.. [ISBN: 0-8108-1773-4].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph 1924-1935 (Volume 5). Tokyo: A. D. A. Edita. [ISBN: 4-87140-516-8].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph Preliminary Studies, 1933-1959 (Volume 11). Tokyo: A. D. A. Edita. [ISBN: 4-87140-522-2].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph, In His Renderings 1887-1959 (Volume 12). Tokyo: A. D. A. Edita. [ISBN: 4-87140-523-0].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright: The Complete Works 1917-1942 (Volume 2). Cologne, Germany: Taschen. [ISBN: 978-3-8365-0926-8].
Riley, Terence and Reed, Peter (editors). Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. [ISBN: 0-87070-642-X].
Wright, Frank Lloyd. Frank Lloyd Wright: Architectural Forum (January, 1938). Boston, Mass.: Rogers and Manson Co..
Wright, Frank Lloyd. Frank Lloyd Wright: Collected Writings Volume 3 1931-1939. New York: Rizzoli. [ISBN: 0-8478-1699-O].