Customer Reviews

Eichler Homes: Design for Living

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I refer back to this book several times a year. It's a great introduction to Joseph Eichler and what he accomplished, through his ideal of a modern home for the masses. Some of the homes in this book are truly dream houses for any modern architecture fan. The book isn't full of photos dating from the late 50's/early 60's as one might expect - it's mostly later day photos of beautiful Eichler homes with excellent interior design. For me, this was the only weak point of the book, and why I couldn't give it five stars. I would have enjoyed seing more period photos of the homes, to try and see what the original owners saw when they purchased their homes. I realize that Jerry Ditto et al had to make a hard choice in this regard, and they chose to go with beautiful photos from the current day. After reading this book, you will yearn for your own Eichler, and wonder why more modern homes haven't been designed since. You'll see that Joseph Eichler and his ideas were 50 years ahead of their time, with many of the items found in his homes just now coming into play. A great book for any fan of modern single-dwelling architectue, and a must have for any Eichler owner.

This simple and striking coffee table book documents the obssessive Joseph Eichler and the uniquely Californian homes he built from the late 1940s through the 1960s.

Perhaps the only mass produced tract homes which have ever been truly architected, the Eichler home is documented well in pictures and words. It's all here - from the simple facades, the post and beam construction, the evolution of the atriums, the carefully chosen materials and hand-mixed paints, to his failed experiments with steel, and finally, unique modernizations.

The book could be improved with the addition of a complete list of all the Eichler developments.

If you are an Eichler fan, an Eichler owner, or are just interested in studying mid-century modern architecture built for the middle class, this book is a must-have. Filled with color photographs of many different Eichler homes in Northern and Southern CA, and drawings of layouts by architectural teams such as Anshen & Allen and Jones & Emmons, this book tells the story of Joseph Eichler as told by his son. I have actually never come across any other books on Eichler, so this is the one to have thus far.

This is the first book on Eichler, and it does an admirable job of getting the topic out there. The good part is that there are plenty of color photos and the book is very well desgined. The not-so-good part is that many of the homes pictured are remodeled and don't truly represent the original designs. The text is by 4 different authors and doesn't hold together well as a complete narrative. Still, if you are relatively new to Eichler this is a nice browsing book that will give you plenty of visual stimulation. For the definitive historical tome on the Eichler story, get "Eichler: Modernism Rebuilds the American Dream" by Adamson which is more complete and scholarly but not as visual and colorful. The two books actually make a good set and give you both sides of the story. In all, this is a very good book about beautiful and innovative homes by an important midcentury homebuilder and businessman.

Being a real fan of the "Eichler Home" architectural style, I was excited to recive this book. After a quick read, I felt that it was a waste of time and money.

First, the narrator (who is Mr. Eichler's son) skims over the architectural concepts that embody the Eichler Home concept. And this from an architect! The design elements of the home are covered so quickly, with practically no details, that this book will be useless to anybody wanting to use this as a teaching aid, reference text, or just to get a better appreciation of how these homes were designed.

The author also spends an inordinate and oddly placed amount of time to describe how magnimonius Mr. Eichler was to sell homes to African Americans, unlike the trend at the time. Unfortunately the author's claims are not borne out by my personal experience in looking through the housing covenants of an Eichler Home in Mountain View that date to the early 60's, which specifically stated that the home would not be sold to people of colour. Nice retrospective attempt at social equality, but the treatement of that sad portion of America's history is treated in a white-washed derisitory fashion by the author.

And the book ends with a weird comparison of Mr. Eichler to other property development tycoons, including Donald Trump, with the conclusion that the brave Mr. Eichler rose above the greed and vanity of the rest.

This is a simplistic, self-serving, useless book. Look elsewhere.

The photography and interior shots are good.

I agree with the other reviewers' comments about the excellence of the Eichler homes and this book. I have many design books, but I keep coming back to this one and never tire of the clean, modern--but not cold--design. I wish Ditto, et al. would produce a video on the subject.

For nine years our family lived in California (near San Jose) in an Eichler house. It's hard to describe the architecture to someone who's never seen one, and I was delighted to have this table-top book to show people the architectural points of interest - flat roof, glass walls, atrium behind the front door. What wonderful years we had in that house. One almost must live in California to live in an Eichler, though I've seen the occasional similar architecture a couple of times in Tyler, TX.

Four stars. I love mid-century architecture and this will make a nice addition to anyone's collection of books on the subject. Nice photography of both interiors and exteriors of a broad assortment of Eichler homes with interesting commentary on the evolution of his ideas and ideals. Additional high marks for the insights into Eichler the builder and man thru the contributions of his son Ned.

This is a great book for anyone interested in the Eichler Homes built in the late 1940's and 1950's. They were way ahead of their times. These were the first really modern homes. I was lucking enough to live in one in the 1950's in the Bay Area of California...Anyone interested in modern homes will enjoy this book..Beautiful pictures..

I have been looking for as much information as I can on Eichler houses and this was a real find. It not only provided me the fundamental information I had been searching for but surprised me with wonderful photos, including the very house that I want to build. The only problem I have now is trying to find contractor willing to provide a contemporary interpretation.