Eichler homes

Last updated August, 2006.

Joe Eichler

Our house is a so-called "Eichler home". Joe Eichler was a developer who, between 1949 and 1974, built a lot of houses. Most were built in the San Francisco Bay Area, but some others can be found in Southern California and Sacramento. Although Eichler hired architects to design his houses, the Eichler homes were meant for the middle class. They were not expensive at the time, and forfilled the housing need for the growing population of Northern and Southern California in the 60ies.

Eichler homes

Eichler built his homes in "tracts", neighborhoods consisting of tens to hundreds of homes, in a limited number of floorplans. But since floorplans were also used in the "flipped" orientation, and houses were painted in different colors, these tracts look a lot more variable than some modern developments!
OK, let's be honest: Eichlers do not look very inviting from the curb. From the street, you will only see garages, and an uninviting front door. But their real beauty lies inside. The back wall is made almost completely out of glass. It is one big window, from floor to ceiling, letting in a lot of light. Other characteristic features are the exposed beams, flat or low-pitched roofs, grooved siding, open floorplan, and mahagony panelling.
Most Eichlers (but not all) will have an atrium, an outside area around which most of the house is built, again with large glass windows. Because you can look through the atrium, it is very confusing at first to know what is inside and what is outside. But it creates a wonderful fealing of airiness.
Here are some pictures, because it is hard to describe what makes an Eichler home so unique. Most of these pictures were taken in the 60ies, by Ernie Braun. I hope you are as excited as I was the first time I walked into an Eichler home.




Now that you are more familiar with Eichler homes, I hope that you understand why we bought one. I will be happy to show you around in our house.


General Eichler Links

Commercial Eichler Links

Buying, selling, updating Eichlers...... Back to Our Eichler Home. Back to Elies Bik's home page.