Pittsburgh to London: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Kaufmann Office at the V&A

Co-Presented Thurs., Apr. 16, 6 p.m.

WhenUpcoming: Thurs., Apr. 16, 2026, 6–8 p.m.
Where: Art Theater
Tickets: Free, museum admission not required
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Presented by Fallingwater and Carnegie Museum of Art

In spring 2025, Edgar Kaufmann Sr.’s office from Kaufmann’s department store, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, was put on public view in London for the first time in 20 years. It’s now permanently installed at V&A East Storehouse—the Victoria and Albert Museum’s revolutionary museum warehouse—that is now open to the public and has been visited by nearly 500,000 people in its first eight months.

Designed and built for department store owner Edgar Kaufmann Sr. at exactly the same time as Fallingwater (1935–1937), the office is, understandably, overshadowed by Wright’s most famous building. But Kaufmann’s office, much loved and never altered by its owner, is a beautiful and remarkably complete example of Wright’s work and of his philosophy of organic architecture in compact form. Its floors, walls, ceiling, built-in and freestanding furniture, upholstery textiles, and rugs are original to the room and designed by Wright—an unusual level of completeness for a museum period room.

At this event, Christopher Wilk of the V&A tells the story of this remarkable commission and its design, the volatile relationship between Wright and Kaufmann, and the role of Kaufmann’s son, Edgar Kaufmann Jr., in preserving the room and donating it to the V&A.

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a wooden room — Panelled room used as an office; panels of swamp cypress plywood; office desk & chairs area; designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1868 - 1959); for the Kaufmann Department Store; Pittsburgh; U.S.A (Pittsburgh); 1937; ©V&A Museum

About the Speaker

Christopher Wilk is Keeper of Performance, Furniture, Textiles, and Fashion at the V&A, which is its largest curatorial department. He was chief curator of the project to create the British Galleries 1500–1900 (which was awarded the European Museum of the Year prize) and conceived the V&A’s Dr Susan Weber Furniture Gallery, which was devoted to the materials and techniques of furniture-making. His V&A exhibitions have included “Fornasetti: Designer of Dreams,” “Modernism: Designing a New World 1914–1939,” and “Plywood: A Material Story.” He was also responsible for the installation of the Kaufmann Office at V&A East Storehouse.

Before joining the V&A, Wilk worked at the Brooklyn Museum (Decorative Arts department) and the Museum of Modern Art (Architecture and Design department). At the Brooklyn Museum, he was project coordinator for “The Machine Age in America, 1918–1941” and, at MoMA, he curated the exhibition “Marcel Breuer: Furniture and Interiors.”

In addition to exhibition-related books on Marcel Breuer, Modernism, and plywood, he authored Thonet: 150 Years of Furniture and Frank Lloyd Wright: The Kaufmann Office. He also edited and contributed to Western Furniture: 1350 to the Present Day and (with Nick Humphrey) Creating the British Galleries at the V&A: A Study in Museology.