Layout Icons: Joseph Eichler
Joseph Eichler (1900–1974) made modernist architectural background as a real estate developer and builder who has daring artistic and social ideals for America’s postwar subdivisions. Though he never held a hammer, he achieved his unwavering wish to create stylish, practical and reasonably priced housing that advocated social acceptance.
Inspired by the progressive architecture of this moment, and especially the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, Eichler hired several like-minded architects to help with the designs that brought post-and-beam structure, floor-to-ceiling windows, sliding glass doors, radiant-heat flooring, exposed ceiling beams and atriums into the otherwise traditional tract home.
Eichler houses were a radical departure from the typical postwar suburban ranch houses. Tract homes weren’t designed by architects in that moment, and several parts of the houses were assembled offsite in an assembly line fashion to keep down costs.
Palo Alto Historical Association
This Eichler at Palo Alto, California, shows the original floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding glass doors that extend the house into the backyard. The big beams and tongue and groove planks of the ceiling leave some of the home’s structural elements observable.
Palo Alto Historical Association
Joseph Eichler and his wife, Lillian, became devotees of modern dwelling in 1942 while leasing a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright at Hillsborough, California. Inspired, Eichler abandoned his lifelong job in company at age 44 and spent a few million dollars into a partnership that made prefabricated little, affordable and stylish homes.
Palo Alto Historical Association
About 11,000 Eichler houses were constructed in California, and a few in New York, between 1949 and 1974, with an average sale price of $12,000.
Gary Hutton Design
Gary Hutton Design
This revived Eichler close San Francisco is among the few custom designs assembled by Eichler with architect A. Quincy Jones. Both men were featured at the 1950 issue of Architectural Forum, whichawarded them with”Subdivision of the Year” (Eichler) and”Builder’s House of the Year” (Jones). Following its publication, Eichler contacted Jones, cementing a working relationship that lasted 24 decades, until Eichler’s death.
A notable characteristic of several Eichler Homes is a spacious recessed entry under a gable roof. Flat roofs combined with steeply pitched gables with broad overhangs (eaves) were trademarks of Eichler-constructed houses in the moment. An atrium from the entrance expanded the illusion of square feet from including the outside.
Gary Hutton Design
Eichler was intrigued by the concept of indoor-outdoor alive. Common to several Eichlers, a triangular window is placed between those horizontal joists along with the roof, increasing the grandness of the large window walls.
Gary Hutton Design
Gary Hutton Design
Interior atriums assisted in bringing the outside inside, a lavish for smaller houses. Vertical siding and tongue and groove cladding were used on walls, exteriors and ceilings of Eichlers. In fact, the most fundamental of construction materials were used to good effect in all of Eichler’s designs.
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Klopf Architecture
The wing on the right of this Eichler was a recent addition. In authentic Eichler design, the wing retains the view of this yard framed from the inside and contains an open floor plan between the living area and the kitchen.
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David Eichler Photography
Large glass areas were used to line the indoor atriums, and translucent windows were used for privacy. This image was shot by photographer David Eichler, grandson of Joseph Eichler.
Klopf Architecture
Chr DAUER Architects
Eichler Homes attract a broad selection of devotees, including architects, designers and fans of midcentury design and modern art. The owners of this Eichler have that same steadfast appreciation, evident in how lovingly they built their home with Eichler’s new modernism in mind.
More: Tour an eclectic Eichler in Oakland
