Fallingwater is a home designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935, partially overlooking a waterfall in the mountains of southwestern Pennsylvania. It’s not only considered to be Wright’s greatest architectural achievement, but one of the greatest architectural achievements ever. A passage quoted in the the LEGO instruction guide describes Fallingwater as “that rare work which is composed of such delicate balancing of forces and counterforces, transformed into spaces thrusting horizontally, vertically and diagonally, that the whole achieves the serentiy which marks all great works of art.” (Paul M. Rudolph, 1970, “Global Architecture – Frank Lloyd Wright Kaufmann House, Fallingwater”.) The LEGO Design

Falling Water - Pinterest Falling Water - Pinterest

In the beginning of this article, I said that Fallingwater has been at the top of my LEGO wish list for years. I happen to live just a few hours away from the real Fallingwater, and what I appreciate most about the real-life structure is how it captures the beauty of Pennsylvania’s mountains. A quote in the instruction guide says, “Fallingwater achieves something that no country home successfully had before: it emphasizes, in every place and at every turn, the wonder and beauty of nature in this woodland setting.”(Bruce Brooks Pfeifer, “Frank Lloyd Wright – Fallingwater,” 2003.) This is the Pennsylvania I know and Fallingwater captures it perfectly, the merging of form and nature.Fallingwater is one of the six original sets in the LEGO Architecture series. Released in 2009, it’s the largest of the originals with 811 pieces. To this day it remains one of the largest sets in the series, ranking 9th out of the 64 Architecture sets. The first segment is placed immediately onto the base, with only a single stud required to hold it in place. The instructions themselves begin with the “nature” portion of the build. The house is built separately and pieced together almost like a puzzle that slides into the base. The entire house, in fact, is held to the base by one single stud. It’s a tight and sturdy fit that makes it one of the best parts of the build. Overall it’s about 117 steps total broken out into several different sections. The Build The next three segments form the three floors of the home. This is the first floor, with more terraces that will extend out over top of the creek. The new Fallingwater LEGO set was introduced today at Fallingwater, the internationally renowned Frank Lloyd Wright house in Mill Run, Pa.

New Fallingwater LEGO set unveiled at Fallingwater

The build continues by completing the creek and layering up the base. The ground is built up with 1 x 6 earth green plates, and reddish brown 1 x 1 round plates will form the trunks of the trees. The second floor segment again includes more terraces plus the only grille plates in the build. Grille plates have become a signature look for the Architecture series, especially in the skyline sets. Fallingwater was actually the first LEGO Architecture set to use them, and they would not appear again until a few years later with the Big Ben set. The front of the box provides a view of the completed LEGO model, plus the standard details on the set’s size and target age group. The rear of the box provides a preview of the model’s puzzle-like construction, which I’ll discuss later in the review. It also includes a brief summary of both Fallingwater and architect Frank Lloyd Wright, plus the only image of Fallingwater itself, the famous “downstream” view of the waterfall and the home. The Instructions

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