Falling for the Call of the Wild

"You put an Eichler next to another home, and it looks like a shack," a Foster City Eichler owner once told the Eichler Network. "No curb appeal. An Eichler stands out as not being attractive."

This sentiment is not a common one coming from tracts built by Joe Eichler, most of whose residents love the homes—but often in radically different ways.

Some months ago, via our story 'Loving Eichlers in Many Ways,' we explored some of those ways—from purist owners who change nothing in their home, to those who play up the nostalgia, to those who love the original design but adapt it for today.

But how about the so‐called radicals who seem to respond to the call of the wild? These are folks who might take an Eichler and change out an original primary‐colored door with something made of glistening aluminum, replace their home's straight lines with curves, and turn spaces that were warm and woodsy into white and gleaming?

The Eichler Network even met a family that, in an effort to produce a model of LEED sustainability, expanded their Eichler to palatial dimensions, not by adding a second story, but by building a natural light‐filled subterranean living area. And they did all this while generally retaining the home's outward Eichler appearance.

"This passive design has been enhanced with the use of 1.5 million pounds of insulated thermal mass [concrete] in the house that will slow heating from solar gain and slow nighttime cooling," owner Bryan Mekechuk wrote of his neo‐Eichler in the South Bay hamlet of Monte Sereno.

The Eichler fans we'll meet here today have a freer attitude to their homes' attributes than purists might prefer. Some want to take their 20th century homes into the 21st century. Others seek more spatial freedom than Eichler originally provided. And some, while respecting much about the original design, use their homes to create personal statements.

Let's consider first the class of Eichler fan who really wants to go 21st century. What does a 21st century modern home look like? It's generally weightier than you'll see in an original Eichler, with thicker rooflines, bigger rooms, added height.

Where Eichler prided himself on consistency in textures and materials—with the same siding on all facades of the home, and often inside as well—some architects today tend to mix it up, with composite panels here, ipe wood there.

This look has spread to Eichler tracts through remodels. Hannah Simonson, an architectural historian who has led tours of Eichlers in San Francisco, has called the phenomenon 'Dwellification,' after the magazine that popularized the trend.

Simonson has pointed out that, while 'modern' and in many cases attractive, many of these changes take away the Eichler's historical look, thus making it more difficult for a neighborhood to be deemed historic.

A related remodeling strategy is to open up interiors even more than intended by Joe Eichler's architects. It's not surprising that people who are attracted to Eichlers because of their openness may want even more openness.

Rhoda and Miguel Andrada, whom we met in 2016 when visiting the Eichlers of the waterfront city of Foster City, loved the incredible openness of their home just as they loved the openness of views alongside San Francisco Bay.

The home had already been remodeled when Miguel, originally from the Philippines, and Rhoda, from Hawaii, fell in love with it upon first walking inside. It had been modernized, and painted white, and the atrium had been turned into roofed interior space, which only added to the expansiveness of the living area.

"What we really loved was the open layout," Rhoda said. "We fell in love with the glass, the outdoor feeling. Being islanders, that appeals."

Going beyond owners who knock down walls to create larger living spaces are those who, well, seem to regard their Eichlers as a bit of a blank slate. These are folks who preserve enough of their homes to ensure they remain Eichlers—while going to town elsewhere.

Because they do show off their owner's creativity—and what owner doesn't want to show that off? —many of these homes appear on Eichler home tours. The 2023 San Mateo Highlands tour had several.

One provided a view between rooms with a moon‐gate‐style window. Another turned a see‐through fireplace into a checker‐boarded wonder.

Few owners have had as much fun with their Eichler as Sandra Smith, whose home is in Oakland's Sequoyah Hills. Sandra told her "very gifted contractor" what she was after: "Drama, I said. Oh yeah—drama."

Sandra's home appears fairly original from the street, but has been transformed within. "I told my contractor I wanted a curved glass‐block wall. He had another idea, but I said, 'No, this is what I want.' I wanted a sense of movement." She also added skylights.

"I don't feel closed in, and I enjoy looking at the stars at night," she added. "I can see the Big Dipper through the window there, and sometimes I sleep with the moon in my face."

"The house has a peaceful energy," Sandra said. "The garden has a peaceful energy. It's truly my refuge."