Burton Klein, 72, whose company, Airoom Architects & Builders, became one of the Chicago area’s largest home addition design and building firms, died Saturday, May 4, in Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach of heart failure. Born on the city’s South Side, Mr. Klein was an only child whose parents divorced at a young age. He attended boarding schools and, after graduating from South Shore High School, enlisted in the Navy. Following the service, he moved to California in the late 1940s where he worked as a door-to-door TV salesman. The company later sent him to work in Chicago. Carson Pirie Scott hired him to sell TVs and appliances and eventually asked him to start a home improvement department in its downtown Chicago store. In that job, Mr. Klein learned how to advertise and train employees–skills that would later help him start his own business. He spent five years there. In 1958, he married Adina, to whom he would be wed 34 years. While they honeymooned in Florida, he saw an advertisement for an all-season room called an “airoom.” That same year, he modified the design to fit Chicago’s climate and opened up his own store selling them. He called the company, Airoom Inc., which eventually branched out to sell other types of custom home additions. As the demand grew, Mr. Klein built a showroom in Lincolnwood in 1963. He pioneered the idea of featuring full-size bedroom, bathroom and living room addition models for customers to view at a large display center in Lincolnwood. He turned the company into one of the most successful home addition and kitchen design and construction firms. He went into semi-retirement in the late 1980s, leaving his son Michael in charge of operating the company. Mr. Klein spent most of his life in Lincolnwood and the last five years in Chicago. Besides his son, Mr. Klein is survived by his mother, Tillie Natkin; a daughter, Lisa Klein Pollack; a companion, Ilana Ilan, and her daughter, Donna Schenker; and three grandchildren. A service will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in Weinstein Family Services, 111 Skokie Blvd., Wilmette.
