Wright said this house would surpass Fallingwater
In 1949, Frank Lloyd Wright sat down to lunch with Edgar Kaufmann — owner of his most celebrated creation — and told him straight: "When I finish the house on the island, it will surpass your Fallingwater."
The project was commissioned by engineer Ahmed Chahroudi for his private 11-acre heart-shaped island in Lake Mahopac, 50 miles north of Manhattan. The family had previously commissioned a small cottage on the island, but this project would be much bigger - and bolder. Wright labored for three months over the design — a 5,000-square-foot house cantilevered over the lake, its interior built around a 60-foot natural rock formation. The town refused to believe the cantilever would hold up and denied the permits. Eventually, cost killed it, and the Chahroudi family gave up. For decades, five drawings gathered dust.
Then came Joe Massaro: sheet-metal contractor, poker enthusiast, grandfather of four, and the kind of man who tapes his phone number to a stranger's dock. 
Joe Massaro with The Impossible RoadHe bought the island in 1991, spent years studying those five drawings, hired Wright historian Thomas Heinz, fought two years for permits, and spent four more years building. The result: the largest Frank Lloyd Wright cantilever ever constructed — 75 feet in two directions. The foyer and grand entrance glows beneath 26 triangular skylights. Every inch of woodwork was custom-built in African mahogany to Wright's specifications. The Cherokee red floors. The six fireplaces.
I think me and Frank, we would get along.— Joe Massaro
The house was completed in 2006.
The great CBS newsman Walter Cronkite, who knew Wright, visited the property and said, “I feel Frank in this house.”
Cantilever
Commission