I"m finding it hard to compare and contrast these 2 monumental homes because they are so different. Like the question I chose states, "Monticello is a culmination of architecture of the past, wheras Fallingwater represents a breakthrough into new architectural concepts." It is asking to explain and use specific examples from each home. Mainly the exterior parts. The following is the best I could come up with after my brainstorming.
First I am going to give a rundown of each home and their style of architecture. Monticello focused more on a classical and a Greek and/or Roman style. The front of the house really focused on those concepts. Using columns, a pediment, and a dome. Which are very similar to many buildings in Rome such as the Pantheon and the Parthenon in Greece. Another concept is the house is very symmetrical. One side of the house is pretty much a mirror or carbon copy of the other. This is an influence of Palladio, which can be considered one of Thomas Jefferson's idols. Both of these concepts of architecture are old, historic, and timeless styles.
Fallingwater really brought about very new and innovative concepts. The one I want to focus on is really an age old concept but Wright built upon it, making it an innovative concept. The inventer of Kindergarten, Frobel, had the idea that you could build anything with just 4 basic shapes, cube, cylinder, pyramid, and rectangular prisms. But Wright pushed this and believed that you absolutely could not build without these 4 shapes. And this shows in his architecture. If you look at the exterior of Fallingwater, you can see that there is a lot of building with the rectangular prisms. He used the prisms both horizontally and vertically, and used them in such a way that it tied into the land. This is known as organic architecture. He accomplished this by layering the rock to mimic the rocks in the area, which appear to be sedimentary, probably limestone or sandstone.
