Wright-designed doghouse rebuilt for film

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan. The Fallingwater home in southwestern Pennsylvania. But a child's doghouse?

Frank Lloyd Wright designed hundreds of landmark buildings and homes over more than seven decades. But in what is widely considered a first and only for the famed architect, Wright indulged a 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 in a recent phone interview.

Berger rebuilt the doghouse last year, using the original plans.

Wright designed Berger's family's home in the Marin County town of San Anselmo, prompting Berger, then 12, to ask his dad if Wright would design a home for his black Labrador, Eddie. His 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 said he would pay Wright from his paper route money.

"A house for Eddie is an opportunity," Wright replied. But he said he was busy 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. -- AP