Modernizing midcentury history: Highlands hosts Eichler Home Tour, showcases 1950s architecture

Next weekend, the public can tour almost a dozen abodes during the Highland’s fourth Eichler Home Tour, a fundraiser that benefits the local elementary school. Attendees will by privy to a variety of homes, the owners of which have dedicated significant resources to preserving, restoring and commemorating their properties. The 11 stops on the tour include a mix of purists who’ve remain true to the original design, those who’ve drawn inspiration from minimalistic modernism and owners who’ve opted to transform their Eichlers into a more traditional contemporary home, said Jim Palmer, who organized this year’s tour.

“What we really want to do with the tour is showcase what you can do with these homes to really bring out the wow factor and really stay true to the original design aesthetics. A lot of people are buying these houses and they don’t know what to do with them, so we want to provide that design inspiration and show what the potential is,” Palmer said.

The once groundbreaking homes that started around $20,000 are now coveted real estate with values hovering around $1.7 million. During the rare occasions when an Eichler is up for sale, they rarely stay on the market long, Palmer said.

He and his wife Kim were inspired to move to the Highlands after going on one of the first tours almost a decade ago and falling in love with the Eichler neighborhood. Now, their four-bedroom 1,800-square-foot circa 1956 home is a stop on this year’s tour.

A style of their own

A namesake to the developer who constructed nearly 11,000 California homes in the mid-20th century, Eichlers are a style of their own. The Highlands has nearly half a dozen floor plans representing a wide variety of designs. The recognizable style is traditionally marked by flat roofs, floor-to-ceiling windows, post-and-beam construction, atriums, mahogany paneling and an architectural design blurring the line between indoor and outdoor.

Aside from the Highlands, Palo Alto is another well-known Eichler hub with nearly 2,700 homes spread throughout the city, Palmer said.

This year’s carefully cultivated tour includes an original two-story Eichler, a highly-coveted “atrium” model, and others inspired by famous architects. A truly unique offering, it will also showcase the one-of-a-kind “X-100,” an all-steel structure modeled more than half a century ago as the “home of the future.”

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a recently completed restoration will be revealed by the owners who involved painstaking detail to preserve the truly unique attributes of the property. Eichler originally used the house as a promotional tool for “futuristic living” and Palmer said he’s thrilled this historic property will be open during the tour.

While remodeling any home is an undertaking, Palmer noted there’s a particular sense of camaraderie amongst Eichler owners. This year, they’re striving to showcase that these tract homes can be updated to meet a modern family’s needs.

Since purchasing their home in 2009, Palmer said they’ve repaired the roof, removed asbestos, upgraded the home’s electrical system, insulated the home and completely revamped the backyard.

“Even if you’re not a hard-core modernist or a midcentury modernist, … a regular family can go into these houses and make it livable and you can have the modern conveniences that people want and you can still maintain that midcentury aesthetic modern design,” Palmer said.

Remodels and expansions

Marc Rarden is well versed in what it takes to transform an Eichler into a comfortable home for a young family. Rarden recently completed a major remodel and expansion of a Highlands home that brought his family from the big city to the suburbs less than a year ago. But Rarden’s roots run deep in the community.

“I’m someone who grew up in the house, returned and took an opportunity with the house to make it work for [my] family,” said Rarden, whose parents first bought their 1958 home in the 1960s. “Everybody thinks about [Eichler remodels] a little bit differently, I’m not an Eichler purist.”

Working with a neighborhood contractor who assisted with multiple Eichler upgrades, Rarden said they were able to stay true to the conceptual design while making more “elbow room” for their family.

They added about 500 square feet, widened the 3-foot hallways, added new walk-in closets, redid the kitchen and opted to replace the mahogany panels with gypsum. They did retain some of the historic attributes, such as bringing the outdoors inside by adding a textured wall that cuts through from the front of the house to the back. They also added another floor-to-ceiling window and several skylights, he said, noting light was a big focus.

Channeling his experienced contractor, Rarden theorized “if Joseph Eichler had today’s materials and today’s families’ budgets to build houses, this is the way I think he would have gone about it.”

The decisions weren’t always easy, in fact it was on a prior home tour that he and his wife met another young couple that spoke about their Eichler remodel. Now, Rarden said he hopes to give back by sharing their own experience.

‘A special neighborhood’

The last 2014 tour raised nearly $70,000 for Highlands Elementary School and they expect more than 1,200 people to attend the two-day tour, tickets for which must be bought in advance, Palmer said.

The local community center will also be open for tours. The center offers Highlands residents a pool, meeting rooms and childcare. The Highlands Recreation District operates the center and is turning 60 this year. On May 21, it is hosting a community cleanup day followed by a summer concert and open house in August.

The quaint community is almost a throwback to the 1950s when these homes were built and a place where people took the time to know their neighbors. Aside from having fallen in love with the architecture, it’s that sense of community and living in a place designed to blend people of different backgrounds that has made the Highlands home, Palmer said.

“It’s just so vibrant and I think unlike so many other Silicon Valley neighborhoods where people are so busy they don’t even know their neighbors, here in the Highlands we have a really strong connection,” Palmer said. “When Eichler started building homes in the 1950s, he said we’re not going to allow discrimination, anyone who wants to buy an Eichler home can live here. And so we have people of all different walks of life and that’s another reason why this is just such a special neighborhood.”

The tour runs 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 6-7. Tickets are $60 or $100 for both days. Visit eichlerhometour.org for more information.