Property of Mr. and Mrs. Burton Romberger, Lido Isle, Newport Beach, California | Architect: Burton Romberger

11/28/2025 10:25:00 AM

It is teen-age time that tests the mettle of a house most severely. Children are individualists now and their acquisitions, activities, the space they need for entertaining a dozen friends plus their new need on occasion for absolute privacy strain a house to the seams. At the same time their parents are at the most gregarious period of their lives and ask much more of their homes than in earlier years. Each generation has different views on work and play, noise and quiet, order and disorder. What must a house have to meet such demands?

The answer architect Burton Romberger found for his own home and family was flexibility. He planned his house at Newport Beach, Cal., with a suite for his wife and himself at the back, his daughters' rooms and study, at the front. In between are a living-dining room and two patios which can be used so elastically that parents' and children's activities can overlap, be separated or joined. Kathie, 16, and Anne, 19, can have their own crowd in the study playing records and buzzing over matters of moment while their parents, at the other end of the house, remain undisturbed. The girls can concentrate on homework in their bedrooms while Mr. and Mrs. Romberger use the rest of the house for a grown- up party. Or both generations can entertain at the same time. They can have buffet dinners, movies, hi fi, or danc- ing in patios and living room without disrupting card games and conversation in the study. In this house, neither generation "takes over."

The girls' separate bedrooms (each is 1912' x 13') and bathrooms give both of them complete privacy and a chance to try their wings at decoration. Kathie's, with yellow walls, turquoise rug and a blue-green bedspread, has a tailored look. Anne's is blue, pink and frilly. Their cabinets and closets are generous, for the girls have collected records, dolls, shells, flowers, stamps and, not surprisingly, they have a considerable interest in clothes. (Also dramatics, singing, painting, swimming, crafts and long telephone conversations.) Each room is big enough to accommodate a guest overnight (a convenience likely to be much in demand in any teen-age household).

Mr. and Mrs. Romberger's own bedroom doubles as a sitting room. It is ideally located to give them comfortable seclusion when Anne and Kathie are giving parties and conveniently opens wide to the south court. Clothing storage is confined to the two big, adjoining dress- ing rooms with lavatories. There is also plenty of storage for knitting and sewing supplies and countertops for cutting fabrics since Mrs. Romberger does a good deal of dressmaking for her daughters and herself.

Television too is sensibly located in this room. It is built in, as is the entire system of sight and sound equipment which is Mr. Romberger's special interest. In the living room he has installed a hi-fi and organ system that has seven speakers, chimes, and is also connected with a sound movie projector located in a sound-proof closet off the bedroom hall. The projector window is hidden by a movable picture on the wall and the screen pulls down behind the dining room buffet.

All these details, joined as they are to a flexible plan, contribute to a smooth running household during the years when family interests are most diverse.