Atriums, household conveniences, and sleek styling made Eichler Homes a standard-bearer for bringing the modern home design to middle-class America.

Joseph Eichler was a pioneering developer who defied conventional wisdom by hiring progressive architects to design Modernist homes for the growing middle class of the 1950s. He was known for his innovations, including "built-ins" for streamlined kitchen work, for introducing a multipurpose room adjacent to the kitchen, and for the classic atrium that melded the indoors with the outdoors. For nearly twenty years, Eichler Homes built thousands of dwellings in California, acquiring national and international acclaim. Eichler: Modernism Rebuilds the American Dream examines Eichler's legacy as seen in his original homes and in the revival of the Modernist movement, which continues to grow today. The homes that Eichler built were modern in concept and expression, and yet comfortable for living. Eichler's work left a legacy of design integrity and set standards for housing developers that remain unparalleled in the history of American building. This book captures and illustrates that legacy with impressive detail, engaging history, firsthand recollections about Eichler and his vision, and 250 photographs of Eichler homes in their prime.

Excerpt

Modernist residential design was, in many ways, ideally suited to the everyday realities of 1950s American middle-class culture, and in California it meshed with the emerging post-World War II culture better than anywhere else. Many California architects of the generation that matured during the immediate postwar period avidly pursued modernism. They realized that in many ways it directly addressed some of the most pressing social issues of their time. California modern architecture was an outgrowth of European modernism, whose refined building methods, open planning, and technical innovation dovetailed with an emerging, innately modern California culture, defined by an unpretentious social structure, outdoor living, and the beginnings of an economy based on aerospace and electronics.