Discovering the Source of Fallingwater's Steel

Fallingwater was designed in 1935 by Frank Lloyd Wright as a weekend home for the Edgar J. Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh. To build this masterpiece, Wright used only four primary materials—steel, reinforced concrete, sandstone, and glass. Most people know that the sandstone was quarried a few hundred yards west of Fallingwater, but have you ever wondered where the steel came from? Recent restoration work at Fallingwater gave us the perfect opportunity to find out.

We took samples from the hatch area near the stairs that lead down to Bear Run and analyzed them at Westmoreland Mechanical Testing and Research in Youngstown, Pennsylvania. The mechanical properties, metallurgical structure, and chemical compositions were determined and compared with those reported in technical publications of the same period. (An in-depth analysis and characterization of Fallingwater's steel is available in an article by Dr. Louise Dean.

We found out that the steel for Fallingwater's reinforcing bars was made in a Bessemer furnace and the hatch steel was made in an open-hearth furnace. Neither of these techniques is used anymore, but in the 1930s, Bessemer and open-hearth furnaces were used in and around Pittsburgh. Because of its proximity to Fallingwater and Wright's penchant for using local materials, it is likely that the Carnegie Steel Company, Edgar Thompson Works, in Braddock, which had each type of furnace, produced the steel. (The same plant is now part of U.S. Steel Corporation. USX is sponsor of a WPC garden in Clairton.)

Today's photo was taken during the recently completed restoration and shows a section above the hatch steps of Fallingwater with rebar and hatch steel corrosion.

The Fallingwater Museum Shop has a limited supply of jewelry made from actual pieces of Fallingwater removed during the restoration. More...

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