Architects and Their Masterpieces

An architect designs homes, libraries, museums and other structures or environments. Here are some famous modern architects and their signature creations.

R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) Fuller was also an engineer and a poet. He was known for his revolutionary designs that were both innovative and efficient. He developed the Dymaxion principle, which called for producing the maximum while using the least possible amount of material and energy. His most famous creation was the geodesic dome.

Frank Gehry (b. 1929) Many of Gehry's designs are oddly shaped and made from a variety of materials, such as corrugated metal and chain-link fencing. His best-known project is the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

Michael Graves (b. 1934) Graves is known for his postmodernist, often colorful projects. Postmodernism is a playful style of art and architecture that was developed after 1970. He also designs furniture and home accessories. Graves designed the Walt Disney Company headquarters in Burbank, California.

Maya Lin (b. 1959) Lin earned fame when, as a student at Yale, she won a contest to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. She also designed the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama.

I. M. Pei (b. 1917) Pei, who was born in China and educated in the United States, has designed landmarks all over the world. He frequently incorporates marble, concrete and glass into his geometrically precise designs. Some of his most famous designs include the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, the expansion of the Louvre in Paris and the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959) Wright is widely considered the greatest American architect. He developed the prairie style of architecture in Chicago. The prairie style features low horizontal lines, earth-tone colors and protruding overhangs. Although he mostly designed homes and furniture, Wright also designed the Oak Park Unity Temple near Chicago and the Larkin Office Building in Buffalo, New York.

THE STORY OF FALLINGWATER

Fallingwater is recognized as one of Wright's most acclaimed works, and in a 1991 poll of members of the American Institute of Architects, it was voted "the best all-time work of American architecture."

It is a supreme example of Frank Lloyd Wright's concept of organic architecture, which promotes harmony between man and nature through design so well integrated with its site that buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition.

Wright embraced modern technology to achieve this, designing spaces for living which expressed architecturally the expansive freedom of the American frontier.

For Fallingwater, designed in 1935 for the Edgar J. Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh, Wright responded to the family's love for a waterfall on Bear Run, a rushing mountain stream.

Mimicking a natural pattern established by its rock ledges, Wright placed the house over the falls in a series of cantilevered concrete "trays," anchored to masonry walls made of the same Pottsville sandstone as the rock ledges. Although the house rises over 30' above the falls, strong horizontal lines and low ceilings help maintain a sheltering effect.

Almost as much floor space is taken up by outdoor terraces as indoor rooms.Construction began in 1936, and ended with the completion of the guest house in 1939. The Kaufmann family used Fallingwater in all seasons as a weekend or vacation home until the 1950's, when their son inherited it.

Edgar Kaufmann, jr., by then a Curator at New York's Museum of Modern Art, continued to use Fallingwater until he entrusted it to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 1963. His gift was lauded by the architectural community as a commendable act of preservation during a time in which many Wright-designed buildings were being demolished or in serious states of disrepair.

Fallingwater is the only great Wright house open to the public with its setting, original furnishings, and art work intact. Almost all of the original Wright-designed furnishings are still in place. Fine art, textiles, objets d'art, books, and furnishings collected by the Kaufmann family from the 1930's through the 1960's are on view, and represent the eclectic tastes of a sophisticated, world-traveled family. Included in the collections are works by Audubon, Tiffany, Diego Rivera, Picasso, Jacques Lipchitz, Richmond Barthe, and woodblock prints by Japanese artists Hiroshige and Hokusai - gifts from Frank Lloyd Wright to the Kaufmanns.