Frank Lloyd Wright’s Doghouse

March 12, 2012

Frank Lloyd Wright, the renowned architect, is known for many things including the Guggenheim Museum located in our city, the creation of the Prairie House, Fallingwater in Pennsylvania and other architectural wonders. Fewer people know him for what most dogs would deem his defining design: a doghouse.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Doghouse


According to the Associated Press, back in 1956, a little boy named Jim Berger wrote to Wright and said, “I would appreciate it if you would design me a doghouse, which would be easy to build, but would go with our house…(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.”

Jim with Wright’s doghouse design, Jim’s original letter to Wright, and Jim with Wright’s response letter and dog

In response, Wright wrote, “A house for Eddie is an opportunity,” but asked Jim to inquire again in November and when he did, the architect sent the designs to a lovely doghouse free of charge. Wright had called it “Plan of Eddie’s House.”
Jim didn’t have the house built until much later and though his family threw away the original, it was rebuilt again for a documentary made last year that featured some of Wright’s designs. In the main image, above, Jim stands with the new rendition of the doghouse (dog walker service).
What a great story! Maybe Frank Lloyd Wright was a dog lover at heart.

Source: Info and images via Associated Press

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