Vanishing Eichlers
Devotees try to curb loss of 1950s-era modernist tract homes
Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, June 8, 2000
©2000 San Francisco Chronicle

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/06/08/MN106244.DTL



The flat roof, the walls that don't meet the ceiling, the concrete atriums.

Fans of modern architecture know these to be the unmistakable traits of a vintage 1950s Eichler home.

Others see a house in desperate need of remodeling.

As the housing market continues to spin into the stratosphere, the Bay Area's 10,000 or so Eichlers are falling victim of the gut-'em-and-rebuild trend -- leaving Eichler devotees livid.

``What we're seeing is people who don't like Eichlers buying Eichlers,'' said Gene Kim-Eng, who lives in an Eichler-esque house in Saratoga. He and his wife, Jody, were appalled when their neighbor covered their modernist home with stucco and installed Corinthian columns out front, transforming it into a quasi- Mediterranean villa.

``It's like putting aluminum siding on a Queen Anne Victorian or putting gargoyles on the Transamerica Building,'' Gene Eng-Kim said. ``It just doesn't work.

You can spot a remodeled Eichler a mile away.''

The horror stories abound in Internet chat rooms and in newsletters: The lace curtains, the Spanish tile, the pitched roofs -- all anathema to the sleek, spare designs wrought by builder Joseph Eichler.

But perhaps no example is so egregious as the case of the 3,000- square-foot custom Eichler on an acre in Atherton. It recently sold for $6.5 million, almost a million over the asking price, and the new owners plan to tear it down.

Joseph Eichler built homes from 1949 to the early 1970s. Aside from a handful of homes in Southern California, all his developments are in the Bay Area. Most are clustered in the Peninsula and South Bay, but San Rafael has about a thousand, and there are a few developments scattered in the East Bay

--in Walnut Creek, Concord, Castro Valley and Oakland.

``At best, they've been a niche market,'' said Frank LaHorgue of Marin County's Lucas Valley, who was a junior executive for Eichler in the 1960s.
``But Eichler thought he was bringing a high-quality product to the market. He clearly had a vision.''

To stop the desecration afoot, Eichler neighborhood associations from San Rafael to Palo Alto are putting the kabosh on renovations.

In Lucas Valley, homeowners must stick to a palette of colors that Joseph Eichler himself chose. You want to paint your house white, off- white or yellow? Forget it. Those are not on the list. But specific shades of olive green, tan and brown will pass muster with the architectural committee.

Also, forget about putting anything on the roof, not even a TV antenna. The roofs stay flat. Period.

``We do try to be strict,'' said Janice Cunningham, business manager of the Lucas Valley Homeowners Association. ``We're just trying to maintain the character of the neighborhood.''

And second stories, in Lucas Valley and elsewhere, are forbidden.

``We just don't allow it,'' Cunningham said. ``We work with the county on that. They enforce it for us.''

Not all Eichler neighborhoods have such draconian rules. In Walnut Creek, the Rancho San Miguel association is decidedly laissez-faire when it comes to renovations.

``It's a certain type of person who's attracted to Eichlers, and we try not to be too hard on each other,'' said Sarah Belinge, who with her husband, Ray, is active in the neighborhood association.

In fact, when the Belinges added a second story to their Eichler a few years back, none of the neighbors even complained.

But it is a different story in Palo Alto. Numerous Eichler neighborhoods have persuaded the city to ban second-story additions altogether, and some groups have proposed that their 40-year-old homes be included in a historic preservation district.

This movement has baffled some Eichler owners.

``I love my Eichler, but let's face it, they're not that precious,'' said Carroll Harrington, who has lived in Eichlers in Palo Alto since 1964. ``I knew Joe Eichler, and I can tell you he never intended these buildings to last forever. They're just not made that well.''

Because they were built quickly and not with high-quality materials, Eichlers tend to ``go downhill faster than other houses,'' she said.

``They need remodeling,'' she said. ``And I don't think the design guideline police should tell you how to restore your home.''

Some architects are also dubious of the glorification of Eichlers.

``Eichlers legitimized the worst aspects of suburban sprawl and the complete destruction of the street as a public space,'' said Daniel Solomon, a San Francisco architect and University of California at Berkeley professor who recently spoke at a Berkeley forum on Eichlers.

``The streets of an Eichler development are absolutely ghastly,'' he said. ``The neighborhoods are sterile, lifeless and promote privatization. They're totally anti-social.''

Unlike most houses, Eichlers are not configured toward the street. The fronts are generally uniform and nondescript, with a prominent garage or carport, a plain front door and one or two small windows. The developments are usually miles from a town center and contain a recreation club for use only by residents.

Inside the homes, floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room face a cement patio in the backyard, often enclosed by a high fence. Critics say this layout discourages interaction with neighbors and the community at large. But fans of the Eichler say it brings a light and spacious feeling to the house and is an ideal layout for enjoying the outdoors.

Joseph Eichler also had a social agenda in his designs. He said that by putting the kitchen in the front of the house, he was liberating the housewife from servant status. Previous house styles, such as bungalows and Victorians, placed the kitchen in the rear of the home.

But some critics argued that it does not matter how wonderful the kitchens are, housewives are still isolated if the neighborhoods are in the middle of nowhere and the streets are generally lifeless.

Solomon said that while Eichlers feature sophisticated architectural design, that does not compensate for the long-term damage they and other tract developments have caused to cities and towns.

``They're part of the abandonment of cities and older neighborhoods that we're only now starting to recover from,'' he said. ``It only makes sense to look at Eichlers in that context.''

Although many have tried, there is not much that can be done to change an Eichler besides throwing on a new coat of olive green paint. Architects who specialize in Eichlers agree that the best way to renovate an Eichler is to stick with the original design.

``Unfortunately, you can't turn an Eichler into anything else,'' said K.C. Marcinik of Greenmeadow Architects in Palo Alto, who has worked on dozens of Eichlers. ``So we try to create a hyper-Eichler.''

To fix up an Eichler, Marcinik suggests installing modern wood cabinetry, restoring the stained redwood ceilings and painting the ceiling beams a strong color like mint green or orange. In many homes, she enlarges bathrooms and uses contrasting wall colors in the bedrooms to make them appear larger.

Eichler purists take it a step further. LaHorgue knows several Eichler owners who insist on all original features, from the 1950s-era kitchen appliances to the old wiring system.

Still, one has to wonder, if Eichlers are so great, why doesn't anyone build them anymore?

``All that redwood would be extremely expensive today,'' LaHorgue said. ``And besides, there might not be the market for it. Eichlers aren't for everyone.''


THE EICHLER FILE

JOSEPH EICHLER

BORN: 1900 in New York state.

ORIGINAL CAREER: Running wife's family's dairy business near Palo Alto.

HOW HE SWITCHED FROM HAWKING EGGS AND BUTTER TO POSTS AND BEAMS: Fell in love with modernist architecture when he rented the Bazett House, a Frank Lloyd Wright home in Hillsborough, during World War II. Anticipating a boom in postwar housing, he decided to mass- produce the modernist aesthetic.

FIRST DEVELOPMENT: Sunnyvale Manor I completed in 1949.

FIRST ATRIUM: Added to home designs in 1957, as a gimmick to spur Eichler home sales during real estate market slump.

TOTAL NUMBER OF HOMES HE BUILT: About 11,500 -- including about 11,000 in the Bay Area and a few hundred in Sacramento and Southern California.

ARCHITECTS HE WORKED WITH: Anshen & Allen and Claude Oakland & Associates in San Francisco; Jones & Emmons in Los Angeles.

DIED: In 1974, at age 73.

©2000 San Francisco Chronicle Page A17