22 DIGS.NET | 12.6.2019
A D B | B O H L I N C Y W I N S K I J A C K S O N
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ut plainly: "You don't out-Wright Wright." Resigned to this truth
but more reliant on its humane, place-centered mandate, the firm
completed a program in two parts: High Meadow Dwellings and
High Meadow Studio. A physical departure from Wright's residential drama
down the hill, the project in its entirety is not ultra-minimal but still exquisitely
refined, displaying sympathy for Wrightian principles but designed as singular.
Facilities for Fallingwater Institute's summer residency programs in architecture,
art, and design, both structures, by virtue of their precisely conceptualized
profiles and purpose, support creative exploration.
Set at the mid-point of forest and field, and made from simple, durable
materials, High Meadow Dwellings display a cabin building typology and
shed roofline. As a practical solution, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson added a series
of individual student study spaces and a porch to an existing building with
communal areas. In humanly scaling the Dwellings to sit lightly on the land,
the structure stands as Fallingwater's opposite, and presents a casual quality
appropriate to the site. Past the new units, a walkway melts into the meadow and
links to the path down to Fallingwater itself. High Meadow Studio, on the other
"It kept the team extremely focused on what we were doing, to not be too willful, to
center on the essentials," admits Kent Suhrbier, principal at Bohlin Cywinski Jackson,
which was commissioned to design the project High Meadow at Fallingwater on
historic farmlands above the residence by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.
HIGH MEADOW AT
FALLINGWATER—A
TWO-PART PROJECT
INCLUDING A STUDIO
AND DWELLINGS—IS
DESIGNED IN THE
SPIRIT OF FRANK LLOYD
WRIGHT'S SCHOOL OF
ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE
AND IS SET ON LAND
ABOVE THE HISTORIC
HOUSE THAT INSPIRED
THE PROJECT.
