Architectural great’s doghouse set to take centre stage

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This article was published 12/03/2012 (5277 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The Fallingwater home in southwestern Pennsylvania. But a child’s doghouse?

Frank Lloyd Wright designed hundreds of landmark buildings and homes during a prolific career that spanned more than seven decades. But in what is widely considered a first and only for the famed architect, Wright indulged a young boy’s humble request for a doghouse in 1956 and sent him designs for the structure.

“I was probably his youngest client and poorest client,” Jim Berger, now 68, said during a recent phone interview.

Berger rebuilt the doghouse last year with his brother, using the original plans. It was featured in a documentary film and will be displayed during screenings starting this month.

Wright designed Berger’s family’s home in the Marin County town of San Anselmo, prompting the then-12-year-old Berger to ask his dad if Wright would design a home for his black Labrador, Eddie.

Berger’s dad said he didn’t know, so Berger decided to write to the great architect himself.

“I would appreciate it if you would design me a doghouse, which would be easy to build, but would go with our house…” read the letter dated June 19, 1956. “(My dog) is two and a half feet high and three feet long. The reasons I would like this doghouse is for the winters mainly.”

Berger explained that he would pay Wright from the money he made from his paper route.

“A house for Eddie is an opportunity,” Wright wrote back. But he said he was too busy at the time (construction on the Guggenheim began in 1956) and asked that Berger write him back in November.

Berger did so on the first of the month, and the plan for the doghouse followed — at no charge.

“The story of a 12-year-old kid having the chutzpah to write a letter to the greatest architect of all time and having him design something as modest as a doghouse… I just knew it was a great story,” said Michael Miner, who produced and directed the documentary, Romanza, which features the doghouse.

— The Associated Press