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by
Alan Joch
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, the iconic residence
in western Pennsylvania, had a dirty little secret. The exhilarating
concrete terraces that hover over Bear Creek seemingly defy
gravity, their support coming from reinforcing steel within
the concrete. But the terraces were only temporarily fighting
off gravity’s pull, like an arm wrestler gallantly losing
out to a stronger opponent.
Fears that the terraces would eventually fail surfaced during
construction of the house, but no one knew the full extent
of the danger until the mid-1990s. Armed with
special radar devices and innovative measurement tools that
daily recorded the movements of microscopic surface cracks,
engineers hired to evaluate the historic treasure came to
a startling conclusion: The main terrace had sunk 7 inches
in about 60 years. Fallingwater wouldn’t be around for
another six decades unless it underwent drastic structural
renovation. “It was in a state of stress beyond what
we were comfortable with,” recalls John Matteo, an associate
at the Washington, D.C., office of Robert Silman Associates,
the engineering consultant.
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Software that assists
in nondestructive evaluation highlights where
leaks have occurred in a facade (the blue areas
show where water has penetrated).
Image: Courtesy Robert Silman
Associates
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The analysis, much of it done with nondestructive testing
equipment and high-tech computer models, spurred Fallingwater’s
caretakers into action. An $11 million preservation effort
is now underway to make the building structurally sound and
to fix more than 60 leaks that have warped doors, peeled paint,
and stained interior walls [Record,
May 1999, page 97].
Fallingwater’s restoration needs are not unique, but
the Wright site is noteworthy for the range of technological
tools architects and engineers are employing. Used by chemists
and metallurgists for years, these technologies are now being
adopted to gain a complete understanding of a building’s
condition while causing the least amount of damage.
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