Resource for House plans?
Hello Everyone,
We are new to this group. We are in Austin Tx and are building a new home in a year or so. We have been a huge fan of the Eichler homes for a long time. We would love to build a "new" Eichler home. Does anyone have a resource of where we may be able to get some actual Eichler plans. I thought that there might be a place where you could buy them.
There are no Eichler homes in Austin, so we don't have much physical homes to look at. We have a lot of books, but are looking for something more substantial. Any thoughts would be helpful!
Thanks
Scott & Amy
Well, the plans for tract homes built by Eichler from the early 60's on were designed by 3 architects/teams: Ashen & Allen, Jones & Emmons, and Claude Oakland.
As far as I can tell, blueprints were not given to the purchasers of the these homes. So, they are uncommon and not cheap when you do find them.
However, even if you got a set:
- they are copyright so you can't build off them
- even if they weren't copyright, building codes have changed so much in the last 50 years it would make more sense to draw a new set than update the old.
- further, Eichler built so many models how would you know the one particular model you'd found was the right/best one for your situation?
- you could probably get a list of materials used but they are not necessarily the ones Eichler (or you) would want to use now.
Now, you might find it useful to look at *floorplans* to get a sense of possible layouts. You can do a web search for "Eichler" "blueprint", or "Eichler""floorplan" to find communities that have their floorplans on the web. For example, from southern california, you might try:
http://www.eichlersocal.com/floorplans/FPindex1.htm
Not sure I've helped. Just hoped to give you some context for your request.
Cheers.
Jake
P.S. Seems to me there are some builders "mid-century modern" designs in the Palm Springs area. You might consider getting in touch with them. Perhaps you could buy a set from them that you could actually build from. Check out:
Jake,Thank you so much for the information and the websites to look at.
We were not planning on building staight off the original plans, as building standards and codes have changed greatly! We really are just looking for some additional details in terms of different elevations and corresponding floorplans. We would love to build an original but know that is not possible and not smart in our climate.
Thank you again we appreicate the advice.
amy
There have been several Eichlers rebuilt due to fire. Greenmeadow Architects in Palo Alto have designed at least one of these. You may want to contact them.
You may also want to look at Michelle Kaufman's Breeze or Glide Houses. Not Eichlers, but Eichler inspired modern prefab which means you'll get architect quality at production house prices. Although I'm not sure even prefab can come close to how cheaply you can get a house built in Texas.
You'd would be surprised to know that Austin is much more like CA than any other place in Texas. We are actually from Santa Cruz, CA so have experienced first hand the crazy building costs. Austin is a lot cheaper but not to terribly far behind.
Thanks so much for the info I will check out both resources.
Thanks again
amy
