Protecting Fairglen’s Eichlers

‘Objective Design Standards’ would curb ‘inappropriate changes’ to San Jose tract
By Dave Weinstein
CA-Modern Insider
The streets of San Jose's Fairglen Eichler tract, where neighbors have been working with the city to establish both enforceable architectural and landscape regulations and advisory guidelines. Photo: Sabrina Huang

Few neighborhoods are as devoted to all things Eichler as Fairglen in San Jose—which is saying a lot considering the legions of devotees who fill so many of builder Joe Eichler's mid-century modern neighborhoods.

The wildly popular Fairglen Art Festival brought neighbors together for three decades, beginning in the early 1960s. Block parties and Joey Awards (handed out for exemplary home restorations and improvements( have also kept neighbors engaged.

Most notably, Fairglen Additions became only the third Eichler neighborhood to be added to the National Register of Historic Places, in 2019. At that time only two households in the 218-home neighborhood objected.

 

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The San Jose Eichlers' proposed 'Design Standards' heading page. Courtesy Page & Turnbull
  

Now neighbors have taken their effort to celebrate and preserve Fairglen's architectural heritage—and sense of place and community too—one big step further, by working with the city to establish both enforceable architectural and landscape regulations and advisory guidelines.

Sally Zarnowitz, an architect and Fairglen resident who wrote the nomination that put Fairglen on the National Register and on the state Register of Historical Resources, says the regulations and guidelines will benefit both the neighborhood and other San Jose neighborhoods—though the enforceable regulations would apply only to Fairglen.

For now.

 

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Second-story additions, as above, are addressed in the proposed 'Design Standards.' Three of the addition types above (those viewable prominently from the street( would not be permitted; rear addition at top left acceptable. Note individual comments. Courtesy Page & Turnbull
  

If and when other San Jose Eichler tracts follow Fairglen's lead, they too would be covered by the regulations. Zarnowitz says she worked hard to make it easier for other neighborhoods to gain historic designation by writing a 'multiple property designation' for all the Eichlers in San Jose. In all, there are about 480 Eichlers in San Jose, in five tracts.

Both the regulations and guidelines are detailed in a 68-page draft document, 'San Jose Neighborhoods Objective Design Standards,' prepared by consultants Page & Turnbull, the architectural firm that did similar work for Eichlers in Palo Alto and the city of Orange.

 

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Even front entry doors are addressed in the proposed 'Design Standards.' The bottom horizontal row would not be acceptable. Note individual comments. Courtesy Page & Turnbull
  

A final version of the draft Design Standards will come before San Jose's Historic Landmarks Commission and then City Council by fall 2025, Zarnowitz says. Neighbors expect approval, since there is little opposition.

"These guidelines are a way of helping homeowners work on their houses," Zarnowitz says, adding that they already appear to be having a beneficial effect even before official adoption.