Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Joseph Eichler and His Architects

From Gamble House Lecture Series:
A lecture
Friday, May 13
7pm

The lecture welcomes David Weinstein who will present an overview on the work of famed architect Joseph Eichler who is best-known for developing distinctive residential subdivisions of Mid-Century modern style tract housing in California.

Joseph Eichler (1900–1974) was a 20th century post-war U.S. American real estate developer. He was one of the influential advocates of bringing modern architecture from custom residences and large corporate buildings to general public availability. His company and developments named “Eichler Homes” remain in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles regions.

Location of event:
Art Center College of Design
Ahmanson Auditorium
Pasadena

cost: $12

1 comment:

David Eichler said...

It is a common misconception that my grandfather, Joseph Eichler, was an architect. He had no training in any kind of design or art, and had no real familiarity with modern design until he rented a Frank Lloyd Wright house (the Bazzett House, in Hillsborough, CA) in the mid 1940s. It was the experience of living in that house that, indirectly, led to Eichler Homes. Among the architects who designed Eichler Homes for my grandfather were Robert Allen, Quincy Jones and Claude Oakland. Robert Anshen did the first designs for Eichler Homes. When my grandfather had to move out of the Wright house, he asked Anshen to design a house for him along those lines, but it proved to be too expensive for my grandfather to build. Later on, after my grandfather started building a few routine tract homes in Silicon Valley, Anshen brought him some plans for tract homes in a Modern style, influenced by the best Modern architecture of the day, and the rest is history.