Joseph Eichler

Joseph Leopold Eichler was born on June 25, 1900, in New York City, and raised around Sutton Place, Manhattan,{{cite web |title=When Joe Eichler Ran a Farmyard |url=https://www.eichlernetwork.com/blog/dave-weinstein/when-joe-eichler-ran-farmyard |website=EichlerNetwork |date=October 24, 2018 |access-date=8 February 2023 |language=en}} where his father and mother ran a small toy store, and in The Bronx.{{Cite web|title=Joseph L. Eichler (1900–1974) |url=https://usmodernist.org/eichler.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413220312/https://usmodernist.org/eichler.htm |archive-date=April 13, 2019 |access-date=2021-03-31|website=USModernist|publisher=Modernist Archive, Inc.}} His father was Austrian and his mother was German, and he was raised traditional Jewish. Eichler attended New York University (NYU) and earned a business degree.

In 1925, the Eichler family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, in order to work in the Moncharsh family wholesale butter and egg business Nye and Nisson, Inc, which closed by the mid-1940s. Regulators found Nye & Nissen was selling eggs that were outdated and incorrectly graded. Joe's brother-in-law served six months to a year in jail.{{cite web |title=Nye & Nissen v. United States, 168 F.2d 846 (9th Cir. 1948) |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/168/846/1544689/ |website=Justia Law |access-date=8 February 2023 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Nye & Nissen v. United States, 336 U.S. 613 (1949) |url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/336/613/ |website=Justia Law |access-date=8 February 2023 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=NYE & NISSEN et al. v. UNITED STATES. |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/336/613 |website=Legal Information Institute |language=en}}

For a few years in the mid 40s Joe ran a retail store Peninsula Farmyard in Burlingame, California which sold poultry and eggs.

In 1943, Eichler rented the Sidney Bazett House in Hillsborough, California, a Usonian-style house built by Frank Lloyd Wright.{{cite web |last1=Arbunich |first1=Marty |title=The Bazett House - Hillsborough |url=http://www.eichlernetwork.com/ENStry11.html |website=Eichler Network |access-date=9 February 2023 |language=en}} Living in the Bazett house inspired Eichler to become a residential real estate developer of Modernist houses.Architectural Guidebook to San Francisco and the Bay Area, 2007, Susan Cerny, Gibbs Smith, 143.

File:Eichler Homes - Foster Residence, Granada Hills.jpg]]

Between 1949 and 1966, Joseph Eichler's company, Eichler Homes, built more than 11,000{{cite book |last1=Adamson |first1=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MH2A_NciyAcC |title=Eichler: Modernism rebuilds the American Dream |date=2002 |publisher=Gibbs Smith |isbn=1-58685-184-5 |edition=first |pages=22, 44–45}} houses in nine communities in Northern California and houses in three communities in Southern California. Later, other firms worked with Eichler's company to build similar houses. Together, they all came to be known as Eichlers. During this period, Eichler became one of the nation's most influential builders of modern homes.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020|reason=According to whom?}} The largest contiguous Eichler Homes development is "The Highlands" in San Mateo, built between 1956 and 1964.{{cite web |title=The Highlands |url=http://eichlerhometour.org/san-mateo-highlands-1/ |website=eichlerhometour.org |access-date=2 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170907030800/http://eichlerhometour.org/san-mateo-highlands-1/ |archive-date=7 September 2017}}

Joseph Eichler was a social visionary who 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 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.{{cite news |last=Gale |first=Roy |title=Jim Crow Real Estate Men Hit by Calif. Court |df=mdy-all |date=1958-06-28 |url=http://www.themilitant.com/1958/2227/MIL2227.pdf |newspaper=The Militant Newspaper |access-date=2017-03-22}}

According to his son,{{Cite news|title = Eichler Influenced by Wright: After Living in a House Designed by the Architect, Eichler Set Out to Build His Own and Never Quit |url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-23-hm-48758-story.html|newspaper = Los Angeles Times|date = 1993-10-23|access-date = 2015-12-27|issn = 0458-3035|language = en-US|first = LYNN|last = O'DELL}} Eichler was inspired by a short period of time when the family lived in a Frank Lloyd Wright–designed house in Hillsborough.{{cite web|title = The Bazett House - Hillsborough|url = http://www.eichlernetwork.com/article/bazett-house-hillsborough|website = Eichler Network|access-date = 2015-12-27}} Eichler was attracted to the style and decided to try to produce similar designs. Joseph Eichler used well-known architects to design both the site plans and the houses themselves. He hired the respected architect and Wright disciple of sorts{{Cite news|title = Eichler Influenced by Wright : After Living in a House Designed by the Architect, Eichler Set Out to Build His Own and Never Quit|url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-23-hm-48758-story.html|newspaper = Los Angeles Times|date = 1993-10-23|access-date = 2015-12-27|issn = 0458-3035|language = en-US|first = LYNN|last = O'DELL}} Robert Anshen of Anshen & Allen to design the initial Eichlers, and the first prototypes were built in 1949.{{cite web|title = Joe Eichler Profile|url = http://www.eichlernetwork.com/article/joe-eichler-profile|website = Eichler Network|access-date = 2015-12-27}} In later years, Eichler built houses that were designed by other architects including by the San Francisco firm Claude Oakland & Associates and the Los Angeles firms of Jones & Emmons, A. Quincy Jones, and Raphael Soriano.

Eichler houses are examples 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 made famous by Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Eichler house exteriors featured flat and/or low-sloping A-framed roofs, vertical 2-inch pattern wood siding, and spartan facades with clean geometric lines. One of Eichler's signature concepts was to "bring the outside in", achieved via skylights and floor-to-ceiling windows with glass transoms looking out on protected and private outdoor rooms, patios, atriums, gardens, and swimming pools. Also of note is that most Eichler houses feature few, if any, front-facing (i.e., street-facing) windows; instead house fronts have either small, ceiling-level windows or small, rectangular windows with frosted glass. Many other architectural designs have large windows on all front-facing rooms.

The interiors had numerous unorthodox and innovative features for the time period including: exposed post-and-beam construction; tongue and groove decking for the ceilings following the roofline; concrete slab floors with integral radiant heating; lauan (Philippine mahogany) paneling; sliding doors for rooms, closets, and cabinets; and typically a second bathroom located in the master bedroom. Later models introduced the distinctive Eichler entry atriums, an open-air, enclosed entrance foyer designed to further advance the concept of integrating outdoor and indoor spaces.

Eichler houses were airy and modern in comparison to most of the mass-produced, middle-class, postwar houses built in the 1950s. At first, potential home buyers, many of whom were war-weary ex-servicemen and women seeking convention rather than innovation, were resistant to the innovative homes.

The Northern California Eichler Homes are predominantly in San Francisco, Marin County, Sacramento, the East Bay towns of Walnut Creek, Castro Valley, Concord, Oakland, and the San Francisco Peninsula towns of San Mateo, Redwood City, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Mountain View and San Jose. The Southern California Eichler Homes developments are in Thousand Oaks, Granada Hills, Orange and Palm Springs.

• Sequoyah Hills – Oakland, California, built between 1965 and 1966, there are fewer than 50 homes in Oakland Hills.
• Greenridge – Castro Valley, California, built along a ridge in the hills of Castro Valley, there are around 200 homes built by Joseph Eichler in the early to mid 1960s. Designed by Claude Oakland and Jones & Emmons, these homes feature a variety of floor plans from flat-top roofs to steeply pitched A-frames. Most of the homes feature the signature Eichler atrium along with floor-to-ceiling walls of glass and exposed post and beams. Most Greenridge homes have views with some having views of the east bay city lights and the bay.[http://www.eichlerforsale.com/Joseph_Eichler Joseph Eichler] eichlerforsale.com

• Concord, California – Three Eichler tracts (Rancho Del Diablo, Rancho Los Santos, and Parkwood Estates) consisting of approximately 175 homes built between 1963 and 1964
• Rancho San Miguel – Walnut Creek, California, a neighborhood with more than 300 Eichler homes

• Lucas Valley and Marinwood – Marin County, California
• The Terra Linda section – San Rafael, California

• South Land Park and South Land Park Hills neighborhoods in Sacramento, California – with many Eichler homes and a street named Eichler Street. Around 140 Eichler homes were originally planned in South Land Park Hills. 60 were finished and approximately 55 remain.

• Monta Loma Neighborhood – Mountain View, California{{cite web|title = Steve Jobs called Mountain View home as a child|url = http://www.mv-voice.com/news/2011/10/07/steve-jobs-called-mountain-view-home-as-a-child|website = Mountain View Voice Newspaper|access-date = 2015-12-27}} with 200 Eichler homes from 1954 in a tract, this is also a location with other mid-century home builders, Mackay Homes and Mardell Homes.{{Cite news|url=http://johnfyten.com/eichler-city-midcentury-modern-in-silicon-valley/where-to-look-in-mountain-view/|title=where to look in Mountain View|date=2013-12-14|work=JohnFyten.com|access-date=2017-03-23|language=en-US}}
• Stanford University – Stanford, California, about 100 homes on Stanford land north of Page Mill Road and east of Junipero Serra Blvd.
• Palo Alto has more Eichler homes than any other city.{{Cite web|url=https://www.eichlerforsale.com/palo-alto-eichlers.php|title=Palo Alto Eichler Homes |website=eichlerforsale.com|language=en-US|access-date=2018-08-03}} Midtown – South Palo Alto, California, with many Eichler Homes, features a Swim and Tennis Club called "Eichler" on Louis Road just south of Greer Road. In south Palo Alto lies Greenmeadow, a tract planned and designed by Jones and Emmons, with landscaping by Thomas Church, recognized by the National Register of Historic Places,{{Cite web|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/9045e8b8-559b-43ce-8546-12bb24f49aab|title=National Register of Historic Places — Eichler Home's Greenmeadow (Units I and II) development|date=June 16, 2005|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=August 19, 2018}} which created the Eichler Tract Community Association and Aquatic Facility called "Greenmeadow".
• Sereno Foothills, Monte Sereno, California with 16 Eichler homes. Eight were built in 1969 and 8 built in 1970.[https://www.sccgov.org/sites/dpd/DocsForms/Documents/Surveyor/MRecordMap/Book250_299/255M47.pdf Surveyor/MRecordMap/Book250_299/255M47.pdf] sccgov.org HTTP 404 This small tract was completed by J.L. Eichler and Associates (successor firm to Eichler Homes).
• Bell Meadows – Mountain View, California, 48 Eichler homes built from 1972 to 1973, near Trophy Drive
• Sunnymount Gardens – Sunnyvale, California, the first Eichlers built in 1949–1950.{{Cite web|url=http://www.eichlernetwork.com/article/eichlers-early-years-1949-50-first-subdivisions|title=Eichler's Early Years: 1949-'50 The First Subdivisions|last=Arbunich|first=Marty|website=Eichler Network|language=en|access-date=2017-10-19}}
• Fairgrove Tract – Cupertino, California has 229 homes built in 1960–1961
• Fairwood, Fairbrae, and Fairbrae addition – Sunnyvale, California have 400+ homes built between 1958 and 1961
• Fairglen Additions in the Willow Glen neighborhood – San Jose, California
• Morepark Neighborhood (currently called Rose Glen / Sherman Oaks) Willow Glen – San Jose, California
• Clay Drive – Los Altos, California
• Pomeroy West – Santa Clara, California, with 138 Eichler homes in a condo community.{{Cite web|last=Weinstein|first=Dave|date=2018-07-24|title=Historic Strategy Fails at Pomeroy Green|url=https://www.eichlernetwork.com/blog/dave-weinstein/historic-strategy-fails-pomeroy-green|access-date=2021-03-31|website=Eichler Network|language=en}}
• Pomeroy Green – Santa Clara, California, with 78 attached two story Eichler townhomes in a cooperative community.

• Diamond Heights neighborhood – San Francisco, California.

• 19th Avenue Park – San Mateo, California{{cite web|url=http://www.eichlernetwork.com/article/work-progress-19th-avenue-san-mateo|title=Work in Progress: 19th Avenue - San Mateo|website=Eichler Network|access-date=2015-12-27}}
• The Highlands – San Mateo, California - with over 700 Eichlers, this is the largest contiguous development of Eichler homes; it also includes the experimental X-100 steel house.
• Bay Vista, Treasure Isle, and Marina Point Neighborhoods – Foster City, California, three separate neighborhoods that are all in proximity to each other and feature Eichler homes intermixed with other types of architecture.{{Cite web|url=https://www.eichlerforsale.com/foster-city-eichlers.php|title=Foster City Eichlers|website=Peninsula Eichlers|language=en-US|access-date=2018-01-05}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1ZEGF1pBuCiTwvvysi9EjCNMOANs&hl=en&ll=37.56083630590636%2C-122.258084&z=15|title = Foster City Eichler Neighborhoods}} Bay Vista is the largest tract in Foster City.
• Mills Estates – Burlingame, California
• Atherwood – Redwood City, California
• Ladera - Ladera, California - with 25 Eichlers built during 1951 using architectural designs by Jones & Emmons{{cite web|url=http://www.eichlernetwork.com/article/eichler-subdivisions-eichlers-early-years-1951-52?page=0,4|title=Eichler Subdivisions: Eichler's Early Years: 1951-'52|website=Eichler Network|access-date=2018-07-10}}

• "Eichler Homes In Conejo Village" and Expo/West – Thousand Oaks, California, with 103 Eichler homes in the "Eichler Homes In Conejo Village" tract, built between 1964 and 1966.{{Cite news|url=https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/communities/conejo-valley/2017/05/08/free-lecture-eichler-homes-thousand-oaks-set/101429824/|title=Free lecture on Eichler homes in Thousand Oaks set|work=Ventura County Star|access-date=2018-03-24|language=en}} The newer portion of the development was marketed as Expo/West.
• Balboa Highlands – Granada Hills, California, with 109 Eichler homes in an Eichler community in the San Fernando Valley; There are a number of homes in this neighborhood that retain their original details. The "Harris Residence" and the "Foster Residence" are designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments.
• Fairhaven – Orange, California, with 140 Eichler homes.
• Fairmeadow – Orange, California, with 123 Eichler homes.
• Fairhills – Orange, California, with 80 Eichler homes.
• Palm Springs, California in the southernmost Andreas Hills neighborhood – building started in 2015 based on Eichler's blueprints, built by KUD Development.{{cite web|url=http://www.curbed.com/2015/1/20/10001808/desert-eichler-palm-springs-troy-kudlac|title=The First New Eichler Home in 40 Years is Almost Finished|date=2015-01-20|website=Curbed|access-date=2016-03-07}}{{cite web|url=http://www.palmspringslife.com/Palm-Springs-Life/May-2015/Reborn-Eichler/|title=Reborn Eichler|date=2015-05-01|website=Palm Springs Life|access-date=2016-03-07}}

Joseph Eichler also built semi-custom designs for individual clients by commission.{{Cite web|url=https://www.eichlerforsale.com/blog/custom-built-eichler-for-sale-in-hillsborough.html |title=Custom Built Eichler For Sale in Hillsborough CA|date=19 August 2014}} There are also three Eichlers built as the first houses of an aborted tract in the mid-1960s in Chestnut Ridge, New York.{{Cite web|url=https://www.6sqft.com/modern-spotting-the-lost-eichlers-of-rockland-county-ny/|title=Modern-Spotting: The Lost Eichlers of Rockland County, NY|last=Cohen|first=Michelle|date=2017-03-13|website=6sqft|language=en-US|access-date=2017-08-05}} As a result of soaring land prices in the mid-1960s urban redevelopment projects became popular, and Eichler began building low- and high-rise projects in San Francisco's Western Addition and Visitacion Valley, San Francisco districts, a luxury high-rise, the Summit[https://www.eichlernetwork.com/article/summit-aka-eichler-summit Summit] (a.k.a. the Eichler Summit) on Russian Hill and row houses on Diamond Heights. He also developed the suburban and 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 distress. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1967.

In 2024, Eichler's personal home in Atherton, California, built in 1952, was placed on the market.{{cite web| url = https://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/joseph-eichler-atherton-home-for-sale-6-4-million-19373633.php | website = sfgate.com | title = Influential developer's custom Bay Area home hits market for first time in 60 years |author = Anna Marie Erwart | date = March 30, 2024}}

In 1925,{{cite web |title=The Kings of Suburbia |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/kings-of-suburbia |website=Tablet Magazine |access-date=8 February 2023 |date=1 September 2020 |quote=After attending New York University and marrying Lillian Moncharsh in 1925, he relocated to Northern California, where he worked as a food broker for his father-in-law’s wholesale dairy business for the next 20 years.}} he{{cite web |title=Joe Eichler Profile |url=https://www.eichlernetwork.com/article/joe-eichler-profile |website=EichlerNetwork |access-date=8 February 2023 |language=en}} married Lilian Moncharsh{{cite web |title=Eichler Tracts (Fairhaven, Fairhills, Fairmeadow) Historic Context Statement |url=https://www.cityoforange.org/home/showpublisheddocument/52/637698062272600000 |website=cityoforange.org |access-date=8 February 2023}}{{cite web |last1=Legaspi |first1=Rexy |title=Joseph Eichler – Father of California Midcentury-Modern Housing |url=https://www.theplancollection.com/blog/joseph-eichler-father-of-california-midcentury-modern-housing |website=The Plan Collection |access-date=8 February 2023 |language=en |date=May 14, 2022 |quote=When Eichler married Lilian Moncharsh – whose family owned a butter and eggs wholesale firm – he eventually worked for his in-laws and joined the competitive food industry. In 1940 Eichler moved with his wife and two sons to California so that he could assume the position of treasurer of the San Francisco-based family business.}} the daughter of Polish Jewish emigres.Adamson, Paul and Marty Arbunich [https://books.google.com/books?id=MH2A_NciyAcC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=lillian Eichler: Modernism Rebuilds the American Dream] edited by Marty Arbunich, Ernest Braun | 2002 | p. 44 Together they had two sons, Edward "Ned" Philip{{cite web |title=The Summit (a.k.a. the Eichler Summit) |url=https://www.eichlernetwork.com/article/summit-aka-eichler-summit |website=EichlerNetwork |access-date=8 February 2023 |language=en}} (1930–2014) and Richard Lionel Eichler (1928–1998).{{cite web|title = Planned home brings angst to Eichler block in Palo Alto|url = http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2014/07/31/planned-home-brings-angst-to-eichler-block|website = PaloAltoOnline.com|access-date = 2016-01-27|first = Gennady|last = Sheyner}}{{cite web|title = Ned Eichler, son of innovative housing developer, dead at 83|url = http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_25570453/ned-eichler-son-innovative-housing-developer-dead-at|website = Mercury News|date = 15 April 2014|access-date = 2016-01-27}}

• {{cite book

| last1 = Adamson

| first1 = Paul

| last2 = Marty

| first2 = Arbunich

| others = Ernest Braun (photographer)

| title = Eichler: Modernism Rebuilds the American Dream

| publisher = Gibbs Smith Publishers

| location = Layton, Utah

| year = 2002

| isbn = 1-58685-184-5}}

• {{cite journal

| last = Adamson

| first = Paul

| title = California modernism and the Eichler homes

| journal = The Journal of Architecture

| volume = 6

| issue = 1

| pages = 1–25

|date=March 2001

| doi = 10.1080/13602360010024804| s2cid = 110272707

}}

• {{cite book

| last1 = Ditto

| first1 = Jerry

| last2 = Lanning

| first2 = Stern

| others = Marvin Wax (photographer)

| title = Design for Living: Eichler Homes

| publisher = Chronicle Books

| location = San Francisco

| year = 1995

| isbn = 0-8118-0846-7}}

• {{Cite news

| last = Jacobs

| first = Karrie

| title = Saving the Tract House

| newspaper = The New York Times Magazine

| date = May 15, 2005

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/magazine/15TRACT.html

| access-date = December 26, 2009}}

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• {{cite web |title=Eichler Network|url=https://www.eichlernetwork.com/ |website= |access-date= |language=en}}

{{Modern architecture}}

{{Modernism}}

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Category:1900 births

Category:1974 deaths

Category:20th-century American Jews

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Category:Modernist architecture in California

Category:20th-century American businesspeople

Category:New York University Stern School of Business alumni

Category:Real estate and property developers from California

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