Eichler, Joseph L.

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Eichler, Joseph L. (1900–74). American property developer who invested in building low-cost, architect-designed houses, and, by the time he died his firm, Eichler Homes, Inc., had built some 11,000 single-family, affordable homes in the San Francisco Bay area of CA. Among his works were houses designed by Archibald Quincy Jones (1913–79), including the US Gypsum Research House, Barrington Woods, Barrington, IL (1995), which employed steel in the construction, and expressed it. Other designs by Jones for Eichler were the X–100 house at San Mateo, CA (1956), and the Steelaire Fifth-Avenue house, Pittsburgh, PA (1957). Eichler also employed Raphael Simon Soriano (1907–88), who had worked with Neutra, to design a steel-framed house at Palo Alto, CA (1955), which received much publicity. Eichler elevated the architectural quality of mass-produced houses, and used talented architects to achieve his aims.

Bibliography

Adamson & and Arbunich (2002);
N. Jackson (1996);
The Journal of Architecture, vi/1 (Spring 2001), 1–25