In 1956, a twelve year old boy wrote to Frank Lloyd Wright requesting designs for a kennel to match his home. Wright had composed plans for Jim Berger’s house some years before and shortly replied with detailed concepts for a complimentary home for Berger’s black Labrador, Eddie, free of charge. This heart-warming story is soon to be the subject of a documentary film entitled Romanza which will be aired at the Illinois State Museum in Springfield, US on 25 March 2012.

The producer of the film is Michael Miner, the writer behind Robocop and director of Sacred Spaces - The Houses of Worship Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Miner explains: “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.”

Unfortunately, Eddie died before the doghouse was completed but his replacement was the lucky recipient of the only known Wright-designed kennel. The original structure ended up in a skip but has now been reconstructed by Berger and his brother for the purposes of Miner’s film. View a trailer for Romanza here.