The Frank Lloyd Wright-Joseph Eichler Connection
Living in a Wright house inspired Eichler to build his midcentury housing tracts, which brought modernist residential design to the masses
Colin Flavin
October 8, 2016
Houzz Contributor. Principal at Flavin Architects, a New England-based design firm specializing in naturally modern residential projects. Colin’s vision combines sustainable design and respect for a building’s context to create a cutting edge aesthetic. Expertise in restoring Midcentury modern masterpieces.
Houzz Contributor. Principal at Flavin Architects, a New England-based design firm... More
Joseph Eichler was working as an egg and butter wholesaler when his life took an unexpected turn. In 1943, he moved his family from a nondescript home in San Mateo, California, to the nearby San Francisco suburb of Hillsborough. Eichler’s business was being sold, and he needed a short-term rental while considering his next career move. The home he chose, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1940 for the Bazett family, was one of Wright’s Usonians, a term the architect coined to describe the modest-size homes designed to provide custom housing for the middle class.
Eichler’s family rented the home for two years, when it was sold to Louis and Betty Frank. Within six years, Eichler had left the egg and butter business for good and started a new career in home building, founding the Eichler Homes Co. in 1949. Coincidence? Definitely not. Eichler’s homes were strongly influenced by the lessons learned while living in the Bazett House. Over the next 20 years of his newfound career, Eichler’s company built about 11,000 homes, and to this day, they remain in high demand for their uncompromising midcentury design and the enduring quality of their construction.
While Wright’s Usonians were custom-designed for each individual client, Eichler built large subdivisions of houses on spec and found customers for his finished designs. This led to fascinating tweaks that Eichler brought to Wright’s design approach to make the homes both affordable and desirable to a large audience.
Eichler’s family rented the home for two years, when it was sold to Louis and Betty Frank. Within six years, Eichler had left the egg and butter business for good and started a new career in home building, founding the Eichler Homes Co. in 1949. Coincidence? Definitely not. Eichler’s homes were strongly influenced by the lessons learned while living in the Bazett House. Over the next 20 years of his newfound career, Eichler’s company built about 11,000 homes, and to this day, they remain in high demand for their uncompromising midcentury design and the enduring quality of their construction.
While Wright’s Usonians were custom-designed for each individual client, Eichler built large subdivisions of houses on spec and found customers for his finished designs. This led to fascinating tweaks that Eichler brought to Wright’s design approach to make the homes both affordable and desirable to a large audience.
Wright’s Innovations
Wright custom-designed each home for an individual client. At the same time, he never let slip his core values of homes connected to nature, efficient in their layouts and with open-plan, family-centered living spaces. These ideas and more influenced Eichler and his design team.
Open to nature. Floor-to-ceiling glass made Wright’s Usonian homes feel far more spacious than their diminutive size would suggest. In the John J. Dobkins House in Canton, Ohio, the glass walls blur the lines between inside and out, and face a spacious garden.
Wright custom-designed each home for an individual client. At the same time, he never let slip his core values of homes connected to nature, efficient in their layouts and with open-plan, family-centered living spaces. These ideas and more influenced Eichler and his design team.
Open to nature. Floor-to-ceiling glass made Wright’s Usonian homes feel far more spacious than their diminutive size would suggest. In the John J. Dobkins House in Canton, Ohio, the glass walls blur the lines between inside and out, and face a spacious garden.
Eichler’s homes also feature broad expanses of glass, though he opted for larger, more economical panes of glass, as seen in this Marinwood Eichler. The mostly fixed windows were less expensive than the smaller operable glass doors and windows that Wright used.
See more of this Northern California Eichler home
See more of this Northern California Eichler home
Street wall. This home, by Genesis Architecture, is designed in Wright’s Usonian style. It features a broad, sheltering low-slope roof and almost no windows facing the street, making the home a refuge from hectic daily life.
This renovated Eichler also minimizes windows facing the street but does it by featuring a solid wall of garage doors. While a relatively blank wall wasn’t everyone’s idea of great curb appeal, Eichler knew how well it functioned in Wright’s Usonian designs and put this practical approach to work in his own.
Natural materials. Eichler was inspired by Wright’s use of local natural materials. In this Eichler home renovated by Klopf Architecture, the vertical natural wood siding is a beautiful complement to the clean lines of the interior, which features painted wood beams and ceiling cladding.
Radiant floors. Another innovation Eichler learned from Wright’s Usonians was the use of a concrete slab placed directly on the ground with radiant floor heat. Tile flooring was used in the foyer, as shown, as it’s ideal for transmitting radiant heat. Even with California’s mild climate, the warm floor underneath your feet was important to counteract the cold emanating from large glass areas in the winter.
Radiant floors. Another innovation Eichler learned from Wright’s Usonians was the use of a concrete slab placed directly on the ground with radiant floor heat. Tile flooring was used in the foyer, as shown, as it’s ideal for transmitting radiant heat. Even with California’s mild climate, the warm floor underneath your feet was important to counteract the cold emanating from large glass areas in the winter.
Carports. Carports were widely used in Wright’s Usonians as an economical open-air substitute to the garage. Eichler’s designs often included a carport and a one-car garage. Carports gave a modernist pavilion appearance to Eichler homes, such as the one pictured here, that a standard boxy garage lacked.
Eichler Innovations
Eichler employed an iterative process, where he and his team worked to improve their designs based on feedback from previous projects. While Wright had designed 66 Usonians, Eichler was able to build about 11,000 homes in California. This allowed him to work out the kinks and provide great design value at a reasonable cost.
Post-and-beam construction. Although Wright loved to let the structural bones of his homes shine through, he was always measured about it. In Wright’s homes, structural posts and beams are typically downplayed by embedding them in the ceiling or wall cavities.
Eichler took a more direct approach. Working with modernist architects A. Quincy Jones, Raphael Soriano and others, he designed his homes to be laid out on a structural grid of post and beams, as clearly expressive as one might find in a working barn. This approach allowed large expanses of glass between the structural supports and gave the homes a more modern feel than Wright’s more romantic structures.
Eichler employed an iterative process, where he and his team worked to improve their designs based on feedback from previous projects. While Wright had designed 66 Usonians, Eichler was able to build about 11,000 homes in California. This allowed him to work out the kinks and provide great design value at a reasonable cost.
Post-and-beam construction. Although Wright loved to let the structural bones of his homes shine through, he was always measured about it. In Wright’s homes, structural posts and beams are typically downplayed by embedding them in the ceiling or wall cavities.
Eichler took a more direct approach. Working with modernist architects A. Quincy Jones, Raphael Soriano and others, he designed his homes to be laid out on a structural grid of post and beams, as clearly expressive as one might find in a working barn. This approach allowed large expanses of glass between the structural supports and gave the homes a more modern feel than Wright’s more romantic structures.
Glazed gables. Whereas Wright rarely used the gable roof form, Eichler’s homes often featured a central gable, flanked on either side by a flat roof, as in this double-gable Eichler remodeled by Klopf Architecture. This proved ideal for maintaining privacy from neighbors while affording a view up to the treetops and surrounding golden California hills.
Central courtyard. Privacy was always a concern in Eichler’s subdivisions, and the large expanses of glass only compounded the issue. Wright’s Usonians were often on large wooded sites, but Eichler homes were often built nearly to their property lines. Eichler and his team solved this problem by adding central open-air courtyards to the houses. The homes were entered via a front door leading from the street to the courtyard, and large expanses of glass opened the house to the courtyard.
Kitchen. Wright’s tiny galley kitchens were rarely popular with homebuyers. Eichler’s homes, however, often featured kitchens that were incorporated into multipurpose rooms, with a swiveling kitchen counter that could double as a dining area. The kids could play and have an informal meal under the watchful eye of adults preparing meals. This Eichler features a remodeled kitchen that still speaks to Eichler’s open feel.
Building on the foundations of Wright’s brilliant ideas, Eichler’s ingenious homes succeeded on a grand scale. Eichler was a developer, and the design of his homes appealed to a broad audience. He adopted Wright’s most relevant ideas and then innovated where needed to suit the modern family as it continued to develop.
While each of Wright’s homes was custom-designed for an individual client and he achieved a remarkable level of craft with his Usonians, his houses also were idiosyncratic and not always easy to live in.
Eichler’s work inspired others as well, as seen in this Massachusetts midcentury modern house featuring Eichler’s iconic glazed gable and post-and-beam structure.
More
How Frank Lloyd Wright Influenced Japanese Architecture
See Amazing Remodels of Eichler Homes
While each of Wright’s homes was custom-designed for an individual client and he achieved a remarkable level of craft with his Usonians, his houses also were idiosyncratic and not always easy to live in.
Eichler’s work inspired others as well, as seen in this Massachusetts midcentury modern house featuring Eichler’s iconic glazed gable and post-and-beam structure.
More
How Frank Lloyd Wright Influenced Japanese Architecture
See Amazing Remodels of Eichler Homes
T. Walton Carr, Architects is a full-service Architecture firm based in Ohio. The firm specializes in customized... Read More
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I grew up, and still live in a house that was inspired by Eichler. Did not know he was inspired by FLW, but it makes sense. Once you live in this type of house, anything else is mundane or depressing.
Nice article. Btw, my grandfather did not start right out building what we now know as Eichler homes. His earlierst homes were standard tract homes of the time. It was not until architect Robert Anshen showed my grandfather plans for inexpensive, modern tract homes that Eichler Homes as we know it was born.
Fun story re. FLW and Joe Eichler that my father, Ned Eichler, told me. My grandfather met with Wright to see if Wright might be interested in designing some tract homes for him. Wright asked my grandfather about what his goal was, to which my grandfather replied something like "to make modern architecture available to the common man," to which Wright replied "#$%^& the common man. Build houses for the uncommon man."
David, I moved to Walnut Creek, Ca back in 1955.... we use to drive past your grandfather's housing development as we made our way out further through the little farming valley that was full of walnut orchards. It was your grandfather and a hand full of building pioneers that helped move the masses from the intercities (Oakland and San Francisco) to the suburbs. This migration came about due to several reasons, but the one that I recall the most was the financing of your grandfather's homes using the GI Bill that was awarded to all WWII service men returning from war. Oakland was a huge discharge point in Northern California.
My father and men like him were part of this first migration from the city to the suburbs where there was room to grow your family and where there was better opportunity. I recall your grandfather's homes were priced under $10,000 dollars.... They were so revolutionary not only in their day but still today. Your are very correct in stating that his homes are still in high demand today.
I am in the swimming pool construciton business here in the Bay Area and I have been fortunate to have the oppertunity to work on projects from San Mateo to San Rafael to Walnut Creek that were developments that your grandfather had built. The building style was so advanced compared to the mid century rancher that was the standard of the day. The radiant heating has always been my favoriate feature that he built in everyone of his homes... They used a Mcintyre heater that functioned as a boiler to heat the water in the floors.
BTW, those $10,000 homes are now a hot commodity here in Walnut Creek.... some are selling north of $2M... many have been updated and restored to their original glory... To this day, when I get a call to design landscape and a pool on an Elcher home, I give my full undivided attention. The home's architecture is very clean and simple with uncomplicated lines. Our landscape and pool designs mimic and compliment the same.
Like so many pioneers of your Grandfather's day, they made their mark that is still visable today....
Chuck