FREDERICK ROMBERG, PRESENTATION ALBUM 1939–1953

Top: Middle Left: Bottom: Romberg and Shaw Romberg and Shaw Glenunga Flats Newburn Flats Hilstan Flats Armadale, 1940 , 1939 Brighton 1939 (demolished) Middle Right: Frederick Romberg Stanhill Flats Melbourne 1943–1950 MELBOURNE 1938–1953

In 1940 Romberg began a partnership with matter to court, instead negotiating a ‘fair dinkum in the Northern Territory of , over 2000 work at the Victorian Public Works Department Richard Hocking, a fellow employee at Stephenson settlement’ in the Australian tradition of flipping a kilometres from Melbourne, to join the Civil Aliens (PWD), under the supervision of Chief Architect, and Turner, while still employed by the firm, a coin to settle a wager. The builder promptly paid up. 1 Corps (CAC), and then on to Katherine, a further Percy Everett. In February 1945, three months combined strain which made the partnership short- 1200 kilometres. short of the end of the European conflict Romberg Glenunga Flats, Armadale, completed in 1940, was lived. Subsequently, Romberg left the practice and was naturalised as an Australian citizen. He no the last private commission executed by Romberg He joined Jewish refugees, Germans and Italians, began a partnership with Mary Turner Shaw who longer had to report to the police and was free and Shaw before all building was stopped by war and an Austrian Baron who had lost his title after had recently re-joined Stephenson and Turner after of restrictions that limited his movements; nor regulation. Glenunga was commissioned by the World War I. From their isolated camp the internees a stint overseas. This partnership lasted a year was he at the mercy of the AWC. brother of Dr Paul Stratmann with whom Romberg were driven to a rocky outpost where they were before Romberg established a solo practice. had travelled on the ship Mosel on the voyage made to move and break rocks to be used in the Free of obligations to the PWD, Romberg He continued in solo practice until 1953, by which to Australia. The client imposed no restrictions production of metal for the resurfacing of roads. resumed the Stanhill project with Korman which time joining forces with others was essential if on the design and Romberg would later cite the The labour was enervating in the tropical heat, had been interrupted in 1943. Andy Naumann, a he were to remain in operation. By then he had a apartments as one of his favourites from this and commonly sustained injuries often became civil engineer and fellow German immigrant, was record of work to his name and was in a position period. 2 infected. Dysentery was a constant risk. On more appointed to take charge of the Stanhill venture to choose partners who shared his architectural than one occasion Romberg was hospitalised. on Romberg’s recommendation. Naumann was Glenunga clearly exhibits Romberg’s debt to enthusiasms. The resulting enterprise with These trips to the hospital offered respite, as an engineering graduate trained in Switzerland the International Style. The building shows a and , referred to as the patients could watch films at night and were and and married to a cousin of Verena. concern for natural light and subtle materiality in ‘Gromboyd’ endured until 1962 when Grounds delighted with the attention of the few female Concurrently, Romberg was working on Hilstan the form of delicate white render over brick that left the practice to continue work on the National nursing staff. Moreover, Romberg was not treated Flats in Brighton for Korman and his brother Hilel makes up the exterior walls, the timber and tile Gallery of . Romberg and Boyd remained as an alien worker but as any other patient. (hence Stanhill-Hilstan), which was completed in interior, and the striking stone rubble work of the in practice together until Boyd’s sudden death in 1947, but demolished in the 1970’s to make way anchoring chimneys. Influences of Swiss, Dutch Eventually Romberg’s architectural background 1971. for a road widening that was never to eventuate. and Scandinavian Heimatstil are situated alongside resulted in a transfer to a better position in Alice Romberg’s architectural output up to1953 is playful elements such as a collection of porthole Springs, in the care of Cyril Hudspeth, Chief It was during this period that Romberg began notable for the number and quality of the multi- windows in the living areas, angled box windows Engineer for the Northern Territory. Hudspeth to engage photographers such as , residential projects he proposed and completed in in each bedroom, and conspicuously striped sun had worked as a structural consultant for a number and Herbert Fishwick to Melbourne. shades over the larger areas of glazing. Placing of jobs undertaken by Stephenson and Turner, document his work. These relationships lasted the building hard against the property boundary including the Australian Pavilion for the New throughout his career, documented in an album Designed in 1939 Newburn Flats, Melbourne, allowed Romberg to dedicate more than a third Zealand Centennial. As well, he had been engaged of work, which, together with a large number was undertaken in part during his partnership with of the site to landscaped garden viewable from by Romberg to consult on the Newburn Flats of photographs and proofs, form a part of the Shaw and was possible due to a sizeable financial each of the four apartments. before his internment. Back at the drafting boards, Romberg Collection. wedding present from Verena’s father, Dr Oscar Romberg was attached to the Deputy Resident Sulzer. This enabled Romberg to buy a mansion A mood of uncertainty prevailed among émigrés Engineer as the Works Supervisor on a number on Queens Road, with the intention to demolish since the outbreak of the War. A German of projects including the Royal Australian Air Endnotes the house to build apartments. This project began neighbour had been interned in a camp and the 1 Frederick Romberg, ‘Before Gromboyd: an architectural Force building at the local aerodrome. On one Romberg’s long venture into property development Rombergs were worried about the welfare of their history’, Vol. 1, 1986, typescript, Romberg Collection, occasion he was invited by the chaplain, who knew RMIT Design Archives, 175-176. and launched his reputation as an independent daughter who was technically Australian if they Romberg’s modest output of work in Melbourne, architect. Newburn, was an adaption of Newburgh, were to be interned. An initial fear of internment 2 Romberg, ‘Before Gromboyd: an architectural history’, 183a. to present a lecture on which was a town in Scotland, after which the original proved unfounded. Instead, they were required well attended by soldiers and public alike. mansion had been named. The construction of to report to the local police station once a week. the apartments - stripped concrete and formwork When Paris fell to the Germans in 1940 they were After the discovery of a theft of tools from raised by steel shutters in two feet lifts, was new prohibited from travelling, and had to surrender the building site for which he was responsible for Melbourne. Influenced by the Swiss practice Romberg’s prized Leica camera with which he had Romberg found himself transferred to a tent camp of incorporating art works in buildings Romberg documented his boat journey to Australia, their near Larrimah, south of Katherine, where he was enlisted Gert Sellheim to design Aboriginal motifs radio and an old pair of binoculars. As a German assigned clerical duties, and rather amusingly for each entrance porch and a sun dial prominent national Romberg found himself treated with found himself responsible for keeping camp time on the façade. Although held up by shortages of hostility and discrimination. by banging out the hours with an iron pipe on an building materials and labour due to war restrictions, old railway sleeper. Occasionally he attached Stanhill Flats on St Kilda Road, Melbourne, were Newburn was completed by early 1941. himself to the Medical Officer on his rounds, commissioned in 1943 by Stanley Korman the revisiting his fascination with the profession that as Financially, the project was not a success, due Director of the Centenary Woollen Mills which acknowledgements a student in saw him sitting in on various to the losses incurred by the slow construction. produced for the military. However, Romberg was dissection and medical presentations. Frederick Romberg: an architectural Subsequently, Romberg invoked the penalty clause only able to complete a sketch design for the survey is supported through funding in the building contract. When the builder blamed maximum number of apartments allowable under Following his discharge from the CAC in August from the Australian Government’s Your Community Heritage Program. the delays on the evident war shortages Romberg the code before he was requisitioned by the Allied 1944, Romberg returned to Melbourne. Still under took heed of prudent advice not to take the Works Council (AWC) and sent to Alice Springs the edict of the Allied Works Council he began

ROMBERG AND SHAW, Glenunga Flats, Armadale, 1940 (BUILT) Drawings by Michael Spooner

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11 9 10 SECTION C 4 8 B 1 7 5 2 5 4 A 7 6 6 3 1 4 2 3 GROUND PLAN

1. Entry Hall 7. Bathroom 2. Living Room 8. Garden Tools 3. Terrace 9. WC 4. Bedroom 10. Laundry 5. Kitchen 11. Garage EAST ELEVATION 6. Dining

rmit design archives journal | vol 3 | nº 1 | 2013