Only when you reach the bottom floor do you remember this
was supposed to be a bachelor pad (well, that and when you see
the huge flat-screen TV in the garage). This is where the owner’s 15- by 34-foot game room resides. With 19-foot ceilings, it’s
less man cave than man vault. It contains a pool table, a card
table, and a wine cellar holding a collection of French wines.
Next door is a fully outfitted workout room, which Berger
designed so that should the house ever be sold, it could be con-
verted to t wo kids’ rooms, creating a four-bedroom home.
As he stands in the man vault, Berger rues one of the features that was cut because of the owner’s changing life — a
proposed Juliet balcony, which would have opened from the
second-floor master bedroom, overlooking the cavernous
game room below. When the now-wife got wind of that, she
put the kibosh on it quickly, treasuring her sleep.
Which, says Berger, is both good and bad. “Things transi-
tioned from being a fantasy bachelor pad,” he says, “into what
has now become a loving couple’s home.” M
When it comes to
Tiburon design, the
bow-tied, bespectacled
Berger is as close to a
sure thing as it gets.
