Barn at Fallingwater Wins International Wood Design Award

(Mill Run, Pennsylvania January 3, 2007)“Wood Design and Building” magazine recently announced that the Barn at Fallingwater is a Merit Award winner in the 2006 Wood Design Awards.  The Wood Design Awards program is the only North American program that fosters growth in the quality of architectural practices by recognizing achievements in wood architecture.

“We are extremely pleased that the Barn at Fallingwater has been recognized for this unique award.  One of the most exciting things about the barn is the timber frame construction which we were able to preserve and also compliment with new parallel strand lumber as well as various recycled wood materials”, said Lynda Waggoner, Vice President of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and Director of Fallingwater. 

Fifteen projects were selected from the more than 200 entries to the award program.  These projects push the boundaries of conventional wood building practices and highlight the special qualities, versatility and sheer beauty of wood as a building material.  The selection of the fifteen winning projects was challenging for the judges, as all the projects displayed innovative uses of wood as a building materials.
Located on Pennsylvania Route 381 from the entrance to Fallingwater in Mill Run, the adaptive reuse of the barn was undertaken by architects, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson of Pittsburgh. In 1963, the barn was entrusted along with Fallingwater to the WPC. It consists of two barns from the 19th and 20th centuries purchased and converted by the Kaufmann family in the late 1940s for a dairy operation based on Jersey cows. 

Today the restored barn provides much needed office space for staff as well as state of the art meeting and conference facilities in the former milking parlor. A stunning special events space is located in the large and open upper level, which once served as a threshing floor and storage area. To preserve the historic nature of the upper level, the architects maintained the gaps in the vertical siding that were once so important in providing ventilation when storing hay. While limiting the use of this space seasonally, the barn’s interior character has been retained.
Visitors to the barn will see “green” sustainable materials, such as sunflower seed board and straw panels for interior wall finishes and wood beams produced from young-growth trees laminated together to provide increased strength.  The building also reused red cedar paneling, and many of the original barn boards and timbers. Recycled tongue and groove maple flooring was placed in the upper barn. 

“The Barn at Fallingwater project has attracted local, state, national and now international interests.  It is fulfilling to see green building practices and good design principals generate such far-reaching effects,” said Waggoner.        
The Canadian Wood Council represents Canadian wood manufacturers and is the national association dedicated to increasing market access and expanding market demand for Canadian wood products.  For more than nine years, “Wood Design & Building” magazine has been the only magazine exclusively about wood use in architecture and construction.  It showcases leading architectural design in wood from North America and overseas while demonstrating the significance of good design and construction.  Visit www.wooddesignandbuilding.com and www.cwc.ca for more information.

About Fallingwater and the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy:
The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) preserves Fallingwater®, the masterpiece home designed in 1935 by Frank Lloyd Wright for Edgar J. Kaufmann in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. In 1963, Edgar Kaufmann jr. (sic) entrusted Fallingwater to the Conservancy.  As a symbol of living in harmony with nature, Fallingwater offers a wide variety of educational programs to its more than 135,000 annual visitors.   Since its founding in 1932, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has protected more than 212,000 acres of natural lands in Pennsylvania, restored watersheds and saved natural habitats for a diversity of life and uses.  Each year, WPC also partners with 5,000 volunteers and dozens of community organizations and businesses to plant and maintain 135 gardens and greening projects in 20 western Pennsylvania counties.