Joseph Eichler

Joseph Eichler

Joseph Eichler (1900 - 1974) was a California-based, post-war residential real estate developer known for building homes in the Modernist style. Between 1950 and 1974, his company, Eichler Homes, built over 11,000 homes in Northern California and three communities in Southern California, along with 3 homes in Chestnut Ridge NY, which came to be known as Eichlers and changed the California lifestyle. During this period Eichler became one of the nation's most influential builders of modern homes. The San Francisco Bay Area Eichlers are mostly in San Francisco, Sacramento, Marin County, the East Bay, San Mateo County, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and San Jose. The Southern California Eichler communities are in Orange, Thousand Oaks, and Granada Hills. The largest contiguous Eichler development is The Highlands in San Mateo, built between 1956 and 1964.

Unlike many developers of the day, Joseph Eichler was a social visionary and commissioned designs primarily for middle-class Americans. One of his stated aims was to construct inclusive and diverse planned communities, ideally featuring integrated parks and community centers. Eichler, unlike most builders at the time, established a non-discrimination policy and offered homes for sale to anyone of any religion or race. In 1958, he resigned from the National Association of Home Builders when they refused to support a non-discrimination policy.

Eichler used well-known architects to design both the site plans and the homes themselves. He hired the respected architect and Wright disciple Robert Anshen of Anshen & Allen to design the initial Eichlers, and the first prototypes were built in 1949. In later years, other Eichler homes by other architects emerged, including homes designed by the San Francisco firm Claude Oakland & Associates, the Los Angeles firm of Jones & Emmons, A. Quincy Jones, and Raphael Soriano.

Eichler homes are from a branch of Modernist architecture that has come to be known as "California Modern," and typically feature glass walls, post-and-beam construction and open floorplans in a style indebted to Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright. Eichler exteriors featured flat or low-sloping roofs, vertical siding, and spartan facades with geometric lines. One of Eichler's signature concepts was to "Bring the Outside In," achieved via skylights and floor-to-ceiling glass windows looking out on protected gardens, patios, and pools. The homes had numerous unorthodox features, including post-and-beam construction, concrete slab floors with integral radiant heating, sliding doors and cabinets, and a standard second bathroom. Later models introduced the famous Eichler atriums, an entrance foyer designed to further advance the Eichler concept of integrating outdoor and indoor spaces.

Eichler homes were airy and modern in comparison to most of the mass-produced, middle-class, postwar homes being built in the 1950s. At first, potential home buyers (many of whom were war-weary ex-servicemen seeking convention rather than innovation), proved resistant to the new homes, and Eichler faced competition from other developers who used elements of Eichler homes in watered-down, more conventional designs. Though fresh and exciting, Eichler homes never achieved large profits for their creator. Eichler also built semi-custom designs for individual clients by commission. As a result of soaring land prices in the mid-1960s urban redevelopment projects became popular, and Eichler began building low- and high-rise redevelopment projects in San Francisco's Western Addition and Bayview, luxury high-rises and clustered housing on Russian Hill and Diamond Heights, as well as the trendsetting co-op communities Pomeroy Green and Pomeroy West in Santa Clara. These large projects began to overextend the company, and by the mid-1960s, Eichler Homes was in financial trouble. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1967.

In recent years, Eichlers have become fashionable again, as part of a rediscovery of American mid-century modern style. Eichler Homes today sell for extraordinary sums, and Eichler-inspired designs are featured in an ever-increasing number of newspaper articles, websites, and even TV commercials.

Media

* The Parr family home in "The Incredibles" appears to be an Alexander home - another tract home development similar to Eichlers.
* Eichler houses in Orange, Calif are used to project a very stylistic look in the 2006 independent film: "Another Gay Movie"
* The neighborhood seen in the 2008 film "Speed Racer" includes a number of digitally-recreated Eichler houses.

References

*Citation
last = Jacobs
first = Karrie
title = Saving the Tract House
newspaper = New York Times.
date = May 15, 2005
url = http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/magazine/15TRACT.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin

*cite book
last = Adamson
first = Paul
coauthors = Marty Arbunich
title = Eichler Modernism Rebuilds the American Dream
publisher = Gibbs Smith Publishers
year = 2002
isbn = 1-58685-184-5

*cite journal
last = Adamson
first = P.
title = California modernism and the Eichler homes
journal = The Journal of Architecture
volume = 6
issue = no. 1
pages = 1–25
month = March | year = 2001
doi = 10.1080/13602360010024804

*cite book
last = Ditto
first = Jerry
coauthors = Lannin Stern
title = Design for Living: Eichler Homes
publisher = Chronicle Books
year = 1995
isbn = 0-8118-0846-7

Eichler Neighborhoods

* San Mateo Highlands, San Mateo County, California many of the homes in the San Mateo Highlands neighborhood are Eichler homes.

External links

* [http://www.eichlernetwork.com/ENHist.html History from Eichler Network]
* [http://www.balboahighlands.com/ Balboa Highlands - Eichlers in Los Angeles, California]
* [http://www.lottaliving.com/bb/ Eichler and Mid Century Modern home discussion board] *
* [http://www.eichlersocal.com/ Eichlers in Southern California]
* [http://totheweb.com/eichler/index.html Eichler Design - Homeowners Personal Site]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvT-keAxwVs TV commercial featuring an Eichler home]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=M5EmVnf6lmQ Another TV commercial with an Eichler home in Orange County]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Eichler — Several people are named Eichler:* August W. Eichler (1839 – 1887) was a German botanist. * Fritz Eichler * Glenn Eichler * Joseph Eichler (1900 – 1974) was a residential real estate developer. * Martin Eichler, mathematician * Ralph… …   Wikipedia

  • Joseph (Hebrew Bible) — Joseph or Yosef ( he. יוֹסֵ, Standard Yosef Tiberian Unicode|Yôsēp̄ , ar. يوسف, Yusuf ; He (The Lord) increases/may add ), is a major figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). He was Jacob s eleventh son and Rachel s… …   Wikipedia

  • Wilhelm Eichler von Eichkron — Karl Wilhelm Eichler von Eichkron (* 10. Dezember 1818 in Kötzschenbroda / heute Radebeul; † 23. Dezember 1892 in Wien[1]; auch: Karl Wilhelm Eichler (Geburtsname)) war ein deutsch österreichischer Eisenbahningenieur und unternehmer. Er wurde… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • A. Quincy Jones — Archibald Quincy Jones, FAIA (1913 1979) was a prolific Los Angeles based architect and educator known for innovative buildings in the modernist style and for urban planning that pioneered the use of greenbelts and green design. Jones was born in …   Wikipedia

  • Mid-Century modern — Tulip chair (designed 1955 56) by Eero Saarinen Mid Century modern is an architectural, interior and product design form that generally describes mid 20th century developments in modern design, architecture, and urban development from roughly… …   Wikipedia

  • Granada Hills, Los Angeles, California — Granada Hills is a district in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles, California. It is located just north of the North Hills district, west of the Mission Hills and Sylmar districts, and just east of the Northridge and Porter …   Wikipedia

  • San Mateo Highlands — The Highlands is a neighborhood and unincorporated district in San Mateo County, California, USA. It is bordered by Interstate 280 to the west, State Route 92 to the south, Polhemus Road to the east, and Crystal Springs Road, which parallels San… …   Wikipedia

  • Palo Alto, California — Palo Alto redirects here. For other uses, see Palo Alto (disambiguation). City of Palo Alto   City   Palo Alto Skyline …   Wikipedia

  • Raphael Soriano — Infobox Architect name = Raphael S. Soriano nationality = American birth date=birth date and age|1904|8|1 birth place = Rhodes, Greece death date = death date and age|1988|7|21|1904|8|1 death place = Claremont, California significant buildings =… …   Wikipedia

  • The Summit, San Francisco (residential tower) — Infobox Skyscraper building name=The Summit caption= status=Completed antenna spire= location=999 Green Street corner of Jones San Francisco, California use= ResidentialCite web|title=The Summit|url=http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=132… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”