Back in 1963, a reporter asked California developer Joseph Eichler, "What
do you call your homes, contemporary or modern or what?"
"I call them Eichler homes," he responded. "There's nothing
else like them."
With their dramatic facades, breezy interiors and Californian focus on
patio living; Eichlers are still standouts today, a half-century after
their inception. Widely emulated from coast to coast, yet never quite equaled,
they remain the very definition of contemporary style during the 1950s
and 60s.
Joseph Eichler, the man behind these groundbreaking designs, was a wealthy
dairy executive with no background in architecture. However, he had briefly
lived in a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and wondered why such houses
couldn't be made affordable to everyone. He was finally inspired to take
on the task himself.
Eichler hired the respected architect and Wright disciple Robert Anshen
to design the initial Eichlers, and the first prototypes were built in
1949. During the next 18 years, a whole range of uncommon Eichler designs
emerged, including later versions designed by the San Francisco firm of
Claude Oakland & Associates and the Los Angeles firm of Jones & Emmons.
Eichlers had a host of unorthodox features, including post-and-beam construction,
slab floors with integral radiant heating, and a standard second bathroom.
Later models introduced the unforgettable Eichler atrium, an entrance foyer
that daringly straddled the line between indoors and out.
Exteriors featured flat or low-sloped roofs, vertical siding, and shockingly
blank street facades. At the side and rear walls, however, great sweeps
of glass brought the outdoors in, without so much as a step to interrupt
it.
Everything about Eichlers seemed light, fresh and modern compared to the
dowdy postwar homes that glutted the market, and they quickly became a
sales success. Yet they never garnered more than modest profits for their
developer, due mainly to their unusual design. Although his associates
urged him to make the houses more conventional, Eichler refused. Sadly,
the realities of the housing market eventually caught up with him, and
Eichler Homes filed for bankruptcy in 1967. Joseph Eichler continued building
custom homes for another five years until the 1973 recession made that,
too, untenable. He died in 1974.
Since then, time has brought a number of Eichler shortcomings to light.
Bedrooms are cramped by modern standards, and the thin, mahagony-paneled
walls, hollow doors, and free-standing partitions make the interiors unusually
noisy. The innovative radiant heating systems have proved troublesome,
and the post-and-beam framing system can make sensitive remodeling a challenge.
Designed during an era of cheap energy, Eichlers also made extravagant
use of glass and were poorly insulated. As energy costs soared during the
70s, the houses proved disastrously inefficient, and unlike homes with
attics and conventional windows, there was no quick retrofit available.
For these reasons, as well as Modernism's fall from favor, the Eichler
will forever remain emblematic of the 50s and 60s. But what an emblem!
Though Joseph Eichler's uncompromising vision brought him financial ruin,
his legacy has proved more permanent.
Copyright 2000-2005 Arrol Gellner. Distributed by Inman News Features
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