Fallingwater and Pittsburgh Trip

This past thanksgiving we took a trip to the Pittsburgh area. I love this city because the mountains remind me of home. They are not as tall as the Himalayas or even the Rockies but are quite scenic. Pittsburgh, of course, is site of "Tirth Yatra" for American Hindus because of the famous Sri Venkatesh temple. When in college we used to not only visit the temple, but grab tons of boxes of real tasty tamarind, yogurt and sambar rice, which sold for $1 each box in the temple kitchen. Now they have doubled price to 2 bucks but its still great value for the money. Near the Venkatesh temple there is a Hindu Jain temple also. We generally visit both temples.

This time we hung around for a while in the Pittsburgh area. I wanted to see Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Fallingwater, which is an hour south from Pittsburgh. The building was designed in the 1930's by Wright for the Kaufmann family. The family had land with a stream and a very nice waterfall and they wanted a bulding with a view of the waterfall. Wright had an idea about having the building "over" the waterfall. Its a beautiful building integrated extremely well with the natural surroundings. Wright built all the furniture, picked colors etc, imposing his will over the family. You get a true sense of the building by visiting it, since pictures don't convey the sounds of the water and the breeze. There is an ambience of great tranquility. Inside of the buliding is a bit claustrophobic, however. Wright was a short fellow, so built the rooms according to his dimensions and the result is very low ceilings.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

First view of Fallingwater

The famous view with the waterfall

Another shot with more of the surroundings

Swimming Pool loved by Mrs Kaufmann. It is 6 ft deep and tiny holes feed and drain it

Balcony outside living room. Note the cantilevers.

The other balcony outside the living room. A statue of Buddha adds to the serenity.

Our Patel photo in front of Fallingwater

Pittsburgh downtown seen from Mt Washington

View of some bridges of the city

Jyoti posing in front of the buldings

Another view of Pitt