Joe Eichler's Kevo

Bring modern architecture to the masses? Was this a crazy idea or a stroke of genius? Frank Lloyd Wright designed a Usonian House but it never got off the ground.

“By the mid-1940s, Joseph Eichler had become intrigued by modernist design and in particular one of the creations of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who had designed the Bazett house (Hillsborough, California), a rented home for Eichler during World War II.

Triggered by Wright's inspiration, Eichler began to fashion a vision short on home-building acumen, yet long on modernist aesthetics and his own iron will. Beginning in 1949, when it was still uncommon to find merchant builders engaged with architects, Eichler became engrossed with building communities of homes characterized by both flair and affordability.”

One of this smartest moves was choosing great architects of the day to help him. Eichler recruited the San Francisco firm of Anshen & Allen, then Jones & Emmons (A. Quincy Jones), later Claude Oakland.

Post and beam mid century moderns started to be built with indoor-outdoor living, walls of glass, atriums, and radiant-heat floors which were copper pipes filled with hot water.

Eichler was also know to be very charming and a man of high character and wonderful humor. He avoided potential shortcuts that would compromise his vision of bringing quality modern architecture to the masses at affordable prices. "By making construction easier and less costly," added Ned, "the architectural principles my father had come to hold dear would have been violated."

A strong proponent of fair housing and deeply opposed to racial discrimination, the liberal Eichler was the first large, tract builder to sell to minorities, and even built a home on his own lot for an NAACP leader. Joe resigned from the National Association of Home Builders in 1958 in protest of racial discrimination policies and, according to reports from long-time Eichler owners, offered to buy back homes from those who had trouble accepting their neighbors.

"If, as you claim, this will destroy property values," Joe once told some disgruntled Eichler owners, "I could lose millions...You should be ashamed of yourselves for wasting your time and mine with such pettiness."

Eichler Homes, Inc. built nearly 11,000 single-family homes in California. Eichlers can be found in Marin county, the East Bay, San Mateo county, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, San Jose, San Francisco, Sacramento. Three small communities of Eichlers in Southern California stand in Orange, Thousand Oaks, and Granada Hills. In addition, there are three Eichler-built residences in New York state.

Eichler was an architectural pioneer and him homes are more popular today then ever. Joe Eichler died in 1974 at age 73.
His legacy is of a tenacious visionary that took the necessary action to get around the roadblocks and even his own shortcomings. "Before and even after 1947," recalled Joe's son, Ned Eichler, "my father never held a hammer, a saw, or a wrench in his hand. Still, he became a master builder."

Check out these sites:
www.eichlernetwork.com
www.eichlerlife.com