Fallingwater + Polymath Park

In August 2011 we embarked on an architectural road trip that began in Washington D.C., progressed through rural Pennsylvania, and ended up in Chicago, where we took the Mies tour.

For me Wright’s renowned Fallingwater was a disappointment. It didn’t match up to what I had imagined. While the house sat beautifully in the landscape, I found it damp, dark, and oppressive. I couldn’t imagine living there.

The Blum House by Wright’s pupil Peter Berndtson, where we stayed for two nights, was the exact opposite––a simple unpretentious bungalow, flooded with sunlight, geometric shadows, and teasing reflections, with magnificent views of the Chestnut Ridge Mountains in the distance.

We stayed two nights. The Blum House is now indelibly associated in my mind with Dave Douglas’s Charms of the Night Sky