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Harpers Ferry is a historic West Virginia city and international tourist hub. But four years ago the national park and surrounding town were devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fallingwater One of "10 Homes That Changed America"
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Southwestern Pennsylvania’s famous Frank Lloyd Wright home Fallingwater will be featured in a new PBS program called 10 Homes That Changed America. The crew out of Chicago started production there last week.
“Part of our goal here is to start a conversation about architecture. We’re not trying to be the final word,” said Dan Protess, the PBS program’s producer.
Protess put together a panel of advisors from academia to help decide which homes would be featured on the show. Fallingwater was a natural choice since Frank Lloyd Wright is one of America’s most famous architects.
The show’s host, Geoffrey Baer, said when Wright built this house in 1937, he blew up certain ideas about Modern Architecture: “One of the tenants of Modernism was that you could take a glass box and put it anywhere—it was ‘universal’ architecture. And Frank Lloyd Wright utterly rejected this idea. This house could not be anywhere but here.”
Baer said it’ll be a challenge to compress the story of the house into a 5-minute segment for their program. 10 Homes That Changed America is slated to be broadcast in 2016.
Final cost: $155,000 (Included $8,000 architect’s fees, and $4,500 for installed walnut furnishings) equivalent to about $2,656,744.60 today.
Square footage: The main house uses 5,330 square feet. (2885 sq. ft. interior; 2445 sq. ft. terraces) while the guest house uses 1,700 square. feet.
Paint Colors: Wright’s desire to create a unified and organic composition limited the color palette at Fallingwater. Only two colors were used throughout: a light ochre for the concrete and his signature Cherokee red for the steel. PPG Pittsburgh Paints has worked with Fallingwater to develop eco-friendly paints that withstand the environmental challenges of the site. They have also created a series of colors inspired by the building and its surroundings. For more information click here.
Visitation: 4.5 million people since opening our doors in 1964, with 160,950 in 2011.
Preservation: The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has preserved Fallingwater since 1963, with a major structural repair in 2002 strengthening Fallingwater’s cantilevers to prevent collapse and future deflection.
Surroundings: Surrounded by the WPC’s 5,000 acre Bear Run Nature Reserve.
Harpers Ferry is a historic West Virginia city and international tourist hub. But four years ago the national park and surrounding town were devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On this West Virginia Morning, tourists from around the world visit Harpers Ferry each year to immerse themselves in U.S. history. But the number of visitors fell in 2020, as public health restrictions ramped up nationwide. Jack Walker visited the town to learn how things have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
This week's broadcast of Mountain Stage was recorded at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, CA. On this episode, host Kathy Mattea welcomes GRAMMY-winning Australian rock star Colin Hay, Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn, legendary folk and country artist Ramblin' Jack Elliott, San Francisco rocker Chuck Prophet and his band The Make Out Quartet, and folk duo The Lucky Valentines.
Across the nation, there are more and more local news deserts; communities with no local newspaper, television or radio station to cover what’s going on. When a small town paper like The Welch News in McDowell County, WV, can’t compete and shuts down, losing those local eyes and ears can affect accountability. No one is there to watch over things. Local news also provides a sense of cohesion and identity for a community. What happens when it’s gone? This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.