Claude Oakland vs Anshen + Allen: Eichler Design Smackdown
Claude Oakland vs. Anshen + Allen: Eichler Design Face-Off
Modern design buffs, get ready – in one corner we have Anshen + Allen, the duo who helped birth the Eichler home phenomenon in the early 1950s. In the other, Claude Oakland, the prolific architect who took Eichler designs to new heights (literally!) through the 1960s. Both contributed immensely to the “Eichler look”, but how do their approaches compare? This report pits these architects head-to-head – from signature traits and floorplans to materials, rooflines, and legacy – in a friendly architectural smackdown. Which architect’s style speaks to you? Let’s break it down.
Background: Early vs. Late Eichler Eras
Joseph Eichler was a visionary developer who, starting in 1949, hired modernist architects to design tracts of affordable yet striking mid-century homes en.wikipedia.org. Robert Anshen and Steve Allen (Anshen + Allen) were Eichler’s first architects, designing the initial Eichler prototypes in 1949-50 en.wikipedia.org. Their partnership with Eichler established many of the hallmarks of California Modern tract homes: open plans, post-and-beam construction, and seamless indoor-outdoor flow en.wikipedia.org.
By the late 1950s, Eichler had also engaged other architects (like Jones & Emmons), and Claude Oakland – who had worked under Anshen + Allen – emerged as Eichler’s lead designer. In fact, Oakland was designing Eichler homes from the start and eventually took over completely after 1960 sfgate.com. Oakland went on to design thousands of Eichler houses (over 5,000 by one count sfgate.com), far more than any other architect for Eichler, right up until Eichler’s final projects in the early 1970s sfgate.com. Thus, Anshen + Allen define the early Eichler era (roughly 1949–1960), while Claude Oakland dominates the later Eichler era (1960–1974).
So what does that mean for the homes themselves? Early Eichlers and later Eichlers share Eichler’s core vision – but there are key differences in style, layout, and innovation. Below, we compare their signature design traits.
Signature Design Traits
Anshen + Allen’s Hallmarks (Early Eichlers)
Anshen & Allen’s early Eichler designs set the template for the Eichler style. Signature traits included clean, rectilinear lines, modest scale, and an emphasis on “bringing the outside in.” These architects, influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian ideas (Eichler himself was inspired after living in a Wright house medleyhome.com dwell.com), incorporated new concepts for the time, such as open floor plans, radiant-heated slab floors, and walls of glass medleyhome.com.
Early Eichlers (circa 1949–1955) were typically single-story, with simple low-sloping or flat rooflines, and minimal street facade detailing. In fact, Eichler fronts often presented blank faces or only small clerestory or slit windows to the street, keeping privacy and an austere look en.wikipedia.org. Anshen + Allen embraced this “private front, open back” philosophy. For example, in Eichler’s 1951 Charleston Meadows tract (Palo Alto), their homes had low-pitched roofs with broad eaves, clerestory windows in the gable ends, and narrow vertical windows peering quietly at the street boyengateam.com. This gave a reserved, almost mysterious face to the public, while the rear of the house opened up with floor-to-ceiling glass onto backyards and patios en.wikipedia.org.
Inside, Anshen & Allen designs were efficient and compact. A typical early Eichler by A+A was around 1,000–1,500 sq ft, 3 bedrooms and 1 bath (initially Eichlers often had only one bathroom) boyengateam.com. Floor plans were open but not sprawling – common layouts placed the living and dining area at the rear, oriented to the yard, with a small galley kitchen that might be partially separated by a cabinet or partition boyengateam.com. In Charleston Meadows’ 1951 models, the kitchen was “narrow…separated by cabinets from the living area”, indicating a semi-open plan where the kitchen and living shared space but with some division boyengateam.com. There was usually a hallway leading to a wing of small bedrooms on one side of the house. A fireplace (often brick) anchored the living room, and exposed post-and-beam ceilings ran throughout, creating continuity between indoors and out.
Anshen & Allen also experimented early on with ideas that would later become Eichler signatures. As early as 1951, they designed a model (Plan 37) featuring a front entry courtyard with a covered loggia, essentially a proto-atrium concept six years before Eichler used the term “atrium” eichlerhomesforsale.com. This outdoor entry court idea (tested in Eichler’s own custom home and a few “Lindenwood” experimental models) showed A&A’s forward-thinking approach to indoor-outdoor integration. However, in the main early tracts, atriums were not yet standard; instead, L- or U-shaped layouts with side or rear patios were more common. Materials in early Eichlers included mahogany wall paneling inside and redwood board-and-batten siding outside – honest, warm materials that echoed the natural palette of California. Occasionally, high-end custom homes by Anshen & Allen for Eichler (like Joe Eichler’s personal 1951 Atherton home) incorporated luxe Wrightian touches – for instance, locally quarried stone walls and extensive built-ins – but tract models stuck to simpler finishes for affordability dwell.com midcenturyhome.com.
Overall, Anshen & Allen’s Eichlers are characterized by clean simplicity, human scale, and clarity of form. They introduced Eichler buyers to novel features (open-plan living areas, radiant heated floors, open-beam ceilings, and lots of glass) within a relatively modest envelope medleyhome.com. The feeling of an Anshen & Allen Eichler is often described as intimate, serene, and functional – a quiet suburban refuge turned inward to its private garden. These homes established the essential DNA of Eichler design that later architects would expand upon.
Claude Oakland’s Hallmarks (Later Eichlers)
Claude Oakland, working first within Anshen & Allen and then as Eichler’s principal architect, took the Eichler concept and dialed it up for the 1960s. His signature traits built on the early ideas but added more drama, variety, and innovation. Oakland-designed Eichlers tend to be larger, bolder, and more experimental in layout than their 1950s predecessors dwell.com.
One of Oakland’s most famous contributions is the quintessential Eichler atrium. While the seed of the atrium idea existed in early designs, Oakland made it a defining feature in many 1960s Eichlers. A typical Oakland plan places a roofless central atrium right past the front door – essentially an open-air courtyard in the heart of the home. Surrounding rooms often look into this atrium through glass walls, blurring indoor and outdoor spaces. For instance, a mid-1960s Claude Oakland model in Sunnyvale arranges “open living areas around a clear-walled atrium, providing unimpeded views throughout the house” sfgate.com. This concept creates a stunning first impression (you enter into an outdoor room, yet completely enveloped by the house) and floods the interior with natural light. Oakland evolved Eichler’s atrium idea in creative ways: some models feature spectacular skylights over the atrium or soaring A-frame peaks that continue from the exterior into the courtyard space dwell.com.
Oakland also wasn’t afraid of verticality – many later Eichlers have higher ceilings or dramatic roof profiles. While early Eichlers were typically low-slung, Oakland’s designs introduced striking rooflines like steeply pitched gables, double A-frame peaks, and even clerestory-windowed clerestory pop-ups. A prime example is the rare “Double A-Frame Atrium” model Oakland designed around 1960, which has twin gable roofs forming a lofty central volume archive.curbed.com. This model’s high-pitched roof forms an atrium that begins at the skylit courtyard entrance and extends over a great room, creating a voluminous, light-filled space anchored by a floor-to-ceiling brick fireplace and extensive glass archive.curbed.com. Oakland’s roofs could be complex: one brochure describes a model W-14’s roof as “unusual, with extended ends and a hipped gable glassed in above the wall line,” giving a slightly medieval or cottage-like twist to the modern form dwell.com. In fact, one of Oakland’s 1968 designs in Walnut Creek had a clipped-gable, shingled roof meant to evoke a thatched cottage – a playful historic reference – yet the home underneath was unmistakably modern Eichler dwell.com.
Besides the rooflines and atriums, Oakland’s floorplans grew more expansive and varied. Later Eichlers commonly have 4 or 5 bedrooms, 2+ baths, and around 2,000–2,500 sq ft (versus ~1,300 sq ft in the early ’50s) dwell.com. Oakland often included a master suite with its own bath (a feature early Eichlers lacked) and sometimes a separate family room or flexible space in addition to the living room. One much-loved Oakland design from 1965, known as the “Gallery Model” (Model M-140), featured a long gallery hallway – perfect for displaying art – connecting living spaces, instead of an open atrium. This gallery layout traded some outdoor space for more interior square footage, an innovation aimed at growing families’ needs (though purists missed the atrium’s open sky). As Eichler fans note, the gallery model’s advantage was “more interior living space” while its drawback was losing the “outdoors-in feel” of an atrium eichlernetwork.com.
Despite these new twists, Oakland maintained Eichler’s core principles. His homes still used post-and-beam construction, open plans, and extensive glass. A later Eichler living room typically features a dramatic open-beam cathedral ceiling (if gabled), a broad expanse of glass facing the atrium or rear yard, and a signature brick fireplace that often stretches to the ceiling dwell.com. The flow of space in Oakland designs is superb – many have a wrap-around circulation around the atrium that creates an easy, airy movement through the house, with virtually every room opening either to the atrium or to the backyard. Oakland was a master of this indoor-outdoor choreography, refining Eichler’s vision of modern living. As one owner of a 1967 Oakland Eichler put it, “There’s a certain inner peace and tranquility to it”, thanks to the open sightlines and light sfgate.com.
In summary, Claude Oakland’s Eichlers are marked by bigger scale, bolder forms, and inventive spatial ideas. He took the relatively simple kit-of-parts developed in the 1950s and “produced some of [the] most innovative and peculiar Eichler models” in the ’60s eichlernetwork.com. If Anshen & Allen built the foundation, Oakland built the futuristic extensions – adding atriums, soaring volumes, and new layouts that have since become Eichler legends.
Floorplan Layouts & Interior Logic
Let’s put the floorplans of Anshen+Allen and Oakland side by side. Both architects believed in open-plan living – the idea that the kitchen, dining, and living areas flow together without heavy walls, which was revolutionary in mid-century tract housing en.wikipedia.org. However, the form that openness took evolved from the early ’50s to the late ’60s:
Early Eichler Layouts (Anshen & Allen): Typically organized as L-shaped or rectangular plans. A common early layout placed a combined living/dining area along the rear of the house, opening via glass sliders to a backyard patio. Bedrooms were usually aligned in a row (or an L-wing) off a single hallway for efficiency boyengateam.com. The front entrance often led directly into the living space or a small foyer; there was no dramatic atrium foyer – at most, a covered porch or modest entry courtyard. Kitchens in early models were moderately open to the living area but still partly enclosed – for example, a waist-high partition or cabinetry might separate the kitchen while maintaining sightlines, as noted in the Charleston Meadow homes boyengateam.com. This reflects a transitional mindset: open concept, but not completely one big room. Interior logic was all about functional simplicity – circulation was straightforward (a single corridor connecting spaces), and every square foot was used efficiently in these smaller homes. Storage and utility spaces were minimal (often just a carport storage closet and bedroom closets). Early designs did not include extras like family rooms or atriums; the focus was on the main great room as the social hub, with bedrooms for privacy and the outdoors as an extension of the living area.
Later Eichler Layouts (Claude Oakland): Oakland introduced more complex spatial arrangements. A hallmark of many Oakland plans is the central atrium layout – essentially a courtyard in the middle with two or more wings of the house around it. In these layouts, you often have the bedroom wing on one side, living spaces on the other, and the atrium as the pivot between them. This creates a circular or looped flow: one can often walk around the atrium in a circuit, a very different experience from the linear hallways of early Eichlers. For instance, Oakland’s atrium model in Orange, CA (Model OC-584, 1964) has a central outdoor atrium as a hub, typical of the indoor-outdoor style Eichlers are known for dwell.com. Such a plan often features the front door opening into the atrium (outdoors), and then glass double doors leading from the atrium into the living room – an entrance sequence that dramatically blurs inside and out. Other Oakland plans like the gallery model took a different approach: a long interior gallery (hall) runs through the home, with rooms on either side – a departure from the atrium but still a new spatial logic compared to the simple early halls. Oakland also occasionally incorporated split-level or two-story elements. In one of Eichler’s last homes (Palo Alto, 1974), Oakland created a roof that rises to form a two-story-high living room and an upstairs master bedroom – effectively a partial second story sfgate.com. This was a radical shift from the strictly single-story ethos of early tracts. Even the “double A-frame” model mentioned earlier uses its twin peaked roofs to achieve a lofty central volume that feels like an atrium crossed with a great hall archive.curbed.com.
Another key difference is flexibility and room count. Early Eichlers were almost uniformly 3-bedroom, 1-bath or 3/2 by the mid-50s; later Eichlers often have 4 bedrooms and a separate family/bonus room. Oakland responded to changing lifestyles – by the 1960s, families wanted a family room or play room, more bathrooms, and a more defined master suite. So, many Oakland designs include a family room adjacent to the kitchen, allowing the living room to be more formal. The kitchen itself in later models became more integrated – often open on two sides (to both atrium and living area, for example) forming a central nexus for family life. And whereas an early Eichler might hide the kitchen behind a partition, a late Eichler proudly opens the kitchen to the living or family room, under the same high ceiling, reinforcing the openness.
Despite these evolutions, both early and late Eichlers maintain a wonderful logic of circulation. Neither has useless halls or dead-ends – as one late Eichler owner said, “Every square foot is usable... There is no dead space”, even in a more complex design sfgate.com. Anshen & Allen’s compact plans achieved efficiency by necessity; Oakland’s larger plans did so by clever design, often providing multiple pathways and multi-purpose areas without wasted space. In an Oakland atrium model, for example, the atrium itself functions as outdoor living room, entry foyer, light well, and spatial organizer all at once – a brilliant piece of multipurpose design.
In short, Anshen & Allen layouts are about straightforward mid-century modern living: simple, efficient, with the living room as the focal point and the yard as extension. Claude Oakland layouts are about modernist experimentation within a tract home: introducing atriums, galleries, soaring spaces, and more rooms while still keeping Eichler’s open, airy spirit. If you prefer a cozy, no-nonsense plan with everything on one axis, you’re channeling Anshen & Allen; if you love a bit of architectural theater when you walk through your front door, Oakland delivers the drama.
Materials, Windows, and Structural Systems
One reason Eichler homes are beloved is their honest use of materials and expressive structure. Both A+Allen and Oakland stayed true to the post-and-beam wood construction that defines Eichlers en.wikipedia.org, but they had some differences in emphasis and detailing over time.
Structural System: All Eichler homes use a wood post-and-beam framework (usually with 4x10 or similar beams) that allows for open spans and glass walls. In early Eichlers, Anshen & Allen exposed these beams proudly on the ceilings – thick beams running across tongue-and-groove plank ceilings (often 2x6 or 2x8 boards above) en.wikipedia.org. The structure was the ornament: beams sometimes protruded out beyond the walls to support deep eaves, a very Wright-influenced detail. These early houses typically had either a nearly flat roof (with a slight pitch for drainage) or a low gable; in both cases, there was no attic, so the ceiling you see inside is the underside of the roof deck. Oakland’s later designs continued this structural approach, but with the demands of larger spaces, he sometimes used bigger engineered beams or paired posts to support wide openings. The dramatic atrium models, for instance, often required a perimeter beam around the atrium opening and steel connectors to brace the open corners. Nonetheless, the aesthetic remained one of exposed wood and open structure. Even in the ambitious two-story-volume Eichler, the towering ceiling is tongue-and-groove wood supported by exposed beams, just on a larger scale dwell.com.
Both early and late Eichlers had no interior load-bearing walls, which was revolutionary – it meant interior spaces could be freely arranged. Oakland took full advantage of this by creating entire glass-walled elevations and, in some models, using folded plate roofs or split volumes that required creative engineering. Yet fundamentally, the system didn’t change: poured concrete slab with in-slab radiant heating, 4x posts at regular intervals, and beams that carry the roof load to those posts and perimeter. This gave all Eichlers a certain structural rhythm and allowed those big window walls.
Rooflines & Fenestration: Under Anshen & Allen, Eichler roofs were most often low-pitched gables or flat roofs with broad eaves. A common early detail was the use of clerestory windows set into the triangular gable end, just below the roofline, bringing light in while preserving privacy boyengateam.com. Many early models also have narrow vertical windows flanking the front door or on the street-facing wall, adding visual interest without giving away too much to the street boyengateam.com. Large expanses of glass were saved for the back of the house: typically a wall of glass (fixed panes and sliding glass doors) in the living room facing the rear yard en.wikipedia.org. These windows often went floor-to-ceiling, a bold choice in the 1950s tract context. Bedrooms usually got tall casement or sliding windows, but not always full-height. Anshen & Allen also employed frosted glass panels near entries or bathrooms to admit light while maintaining privacy – a practice that continued later as well.
Claude Oakland experimented with more varied roof forms, as noted earlier. In the 1960s Eichlers, you see everything from flat roofs to steep A-frames to clipped-gable hybrids. Oakland’s use of glass also became more adventurous. Entire atrium walls would be glass, including glass transoms above doors to maximize light en.wikipedia.org. Some later Eichlers feature floor-to-ceiling glass panels not just at the rear, but around interior courtyards and even at front entrances (often with a decorative screen or fence for privacy). The double A-frame models put skylights right at the roof ridge or atrium, essentially glazing parts of the roof to let in sunshine archive.curbed.com. Skylights in general became more common in later Eichlers – it was not unusual to find skylights in bathrooms, halls, or the atrium, whereas early Eichlers might have had only one small skylight if any.
One subtle change in materials over time was the introduction of more varied exterior materials in later years. Early Eichlers were clad in vertical wood siding (usually redwood or cedar boards) almost exclusively. By the 1960s, some Eichler exteriors began incorporating brick or concrete block accents. In the Upper Lucas Valley tract (Marin County, 1960s), for example, Eichler exteriors mix plywood siding with painted concrete block and brick elements sfgate.com. This added texture and a bit of mid-century Brutalist chic to the otherwise pure wooden facades. Oakland’s designs sometimes featured a tall brick chimney breast on the facade or a concrete block wall as a courtyard enclosure, giving a touch of pattern and solidity. Interior materials, however, stayed fairly consistent: Philippine mahogany paneling on many walls (though by the late ’60s, some homes did use drywall in certain rooms), and aggregate or cork flooring in addition to the concrete slab. Oakland did design some truly high-end custom Eichlers (or semi-custom tract models) that had unique finishes – for instance, the Model W-14 “Super Eichler” in Walnut Creek came with a striking brick fireplace and wood-paneled atrium skylights, features that set it apart from earlier plainer models dwell.com. But even those features were in line with Eichler’s material palette of natural wood, brick, and glass.
In terms of fixtures and details, both eras share the iconography of mid-century modern living: globe pendant lights hanging from open beam ceilings, simple slab doors for cabinetry, and exposed concrete block or brick in fireplaces. One notable constant is the lack of ornamentation: no cornices, no baseboards, no unnecessary trim – a philosophy established early by Anshen & Allen and maintained by Oakland. The structure and materials are the aesthetic. This minimalism is a huge part of the Eichler legacy.
To sum up, Anshen & Allen’s material/structural approach gave us the timeless basics: open post-and-beam structures, wood, glass, and a low-slung profile. Oakland built on that with more daring roofs, bigger panes of glass, and occasional new materials (like concrete block) to keep things fresh. Yet both delivered homes that feel connected to their structure and site, rather than applied with superficial decoration. As an Eichler owner in Marin noted, even concrete blocks in these homes read as “modern architecture” when seen in the context of the whole design sfgate.com.
Spatial Flow and Integration with the Landscape
One of Eichler’s driving principles – executed by both A+Allen and Oakland – was integration of indoor and outdoor space. However, the spatial flow (how one moves through and experiences the space) evolved significantly.
Anshen & Allen (Early Eichlers): These homes established the classic Eichler connection to the backyard. The floor plan was oriented so that upon entering and moving to the main living areas, your view was drawn outward to the private yard. Large glass sliders often opened from the living/dining room to a rear patio, effectively doubling the living space when open. There’s a deliberate progression: street (public) -> entry (transitional) -> living area (semi-private) -> backyard (private nature). Often the living-dining area ran along the rear glass wall, making the garden feel like an extension of the room. One permanent innovation credited to early Eichlers was orienting the house away from the street and toward an internal garden eichlernetwork.com – a stark contrast to typical suburban homes that presented a proud facade to the street and treated the back as utilitarian. Walking through an early Eichler, the flow is relatively straightforward (from entry into living space or down a hall), and the openness of the living area to the yard gives a sense of freedom and relaxation. With windows and sliding doors taking up much of the rear wall, kids and adults could move easily between inside and outside. However, aside from perhaps a side patio off the dining or a small front porch, early Eichlers didn’t incorporate multiple outdoor focal points – the action was all at the rear.
Integration with the landscape in early tracts often meant simple things: a protected rear patio (sometimes with an open trellis), maybe a small courtyard at the front entry formed by a low fence or gate (as a few models had), and lots of glass to visually merge with the outdoors. The landscaping itself was usually left to owners, but Eichler’s team often suggested Japanese-inspired simplicity: minimal lawns, specimen trees visible through the glass, and internal atrium gardens in the custom one-off cases. Overall, the spatial experience was calm and axial: you look straight through the house to nature, and you circulate in a linear way from public to private spaces.
Claude Oakland (Later Eichlers): Here, the indoor-outdoor dance becomes more complex and arguably more immersive. With the advent of the central atrium, Oakland’s designs make outdoor space literally part of the interior circulation. You might enter the house by stepping into an outdoor atrium, effectively beginning your indoor experience still outside under the sky. From there, multiple rooms have sliding glass or even entire window walls onto this atrium, so that as you move around, you’re constantly weaving between enclosed rooms and open-air pockets. This creates a pinwheel flow – e.g., you can exit the kitchen to the atrium, cross to a bedroom hallway, then perhaps exit to the backyard from there, and loop around. In many Oakland Eichlers, there are at least two outdoor areas to enjoy: the atrium (courtyard) and the backyard/patio – some even have side gardens or breezeways as well. The result is that the landscape is not just at the periphery, but centralized.
A perfect example is an atrium Eichler: the central outdoor atrium is “typical of the open-plan, indoor-outdoor style” – it connects to an expanded master suite on one side and living areas on the other dwell.com. Imagine waking up in a master bedroom that has a glass wall onto the atrium – you step outside (yet still within your house’s footprint) to enjoy morning coffee, then walk into the kitchen from the other atrium door. The house and landscape are fully intertwined. Oakland’s spatial flows are often described as free-flowing and circular, in contrast to the linear flows of early designs. There is usually more than one way to get from point A to B inside the house. This not only makes the homes feel larger, it encourages casual, indoor-outdoor living: people can spill into the atrium during parties, kids can run loops through the house chasing each other (a common Eichler kid memory!), and fresh air and light permeate deeper into the interior. Oakland also aligned his designs with the natural context when possible – for instance, in scenic lots (like some Marin County Eichlers), he’d place window walls to capture views of the hills or bay. One Marin Eichler owner noted their Oakland design had a steep central gable that soars over an open-air atrium and continues out toward the backyard and bay view, creating drama and drawing the eye to the scenery sfgate.com. This kind of site-responsive flourish wasn’t seen in the more homogeneous flat-land early tracts.
Another difference in flow is how private vs public spaces are arranged. Early Eichlers sometimes had a more abrupt separation (a hallway door leading to the bedroom wing, for instance). Later Eichlers, with atriums and larger footprints, often achieve privacy by spatial distance or clever layout – e.g. the master suite is on the opposite side of the atrium from the kids’ bedrooms, or a “gallery” hallway creates a buffer. This means you can have simultaneous activities (kids playing in family room, adults entertaining in living room) with a comfortable sense of separation, all within an open concept home – a nice trick of planning by Oakland.
In essence, Anshen & Allen homes integrate with the landscape primarily at the back of the house, creating a single indoor-outdoor realm focused on the backyard. Claude Oakland homes integrate landscape throughout the house, via atriums and multiple courtyards, making nature a constant companion in multiple directions. Both are undeniably Eichler in spirit – the outside is invited in – but Oakland gives you layered outdoor experiences (courtyard and yard, sometimes multiple courtyards), whereas A+Allen give you a singular outdoor focus (the back patio/yard). Your personal preference might be: do you like all your outdoor space contiguous (early style), or do you love little gardens around every turn (later style)?
Visual Identifiers and Style Markers
How can one spot an Anshen & Allen Eichler versus a Claude Oakland Eichler at a glance? Here are some visual identifiers and stylistic markers that often distinguish the two:
Atrium vs. No Atrium: The presence of an atrium (open-air courtyard) in the center of the plan is a strong sign of a later Oakland design. Early A+Allen Eichlers (with rare custom exceptions) do not have an atrium; their front door opens directly into the home. If you see an Eichler with a front gate leading into a private atrium before the front door, that’s classic Oakland-era Eichler (common in mid-60s models) dwell.com.
Roof Profile: Anshen & Allen homes usually have flat or gently pitched roofs with extensive eaves. A telltale early Eichler look is a low-gable roof with open-beam eaves and maybe a small triangular clerestory window on the street side boyengateam.com. Oakland’s homes, on the other hand, might sport a taller profile or multiple rooflines. If you see a dramatic A-frame or a high-peaked gable on an Eichler, it more likely comes from the Oakland/Jones & Emmons 1960s era. Oakland also did flat-roof models, but even some of those have distinctive features like pop-up roof extensions over the living room. A quirky “clipped-gable” or complex roof geometry (like the double A-frame, where two gables intersect) is a signature of Oakland pushing the envelope archive.curbed.com.
Facade and Entry: Early Eichlers by A+Allen tend to have very minimalist facades – often just a plain wall or carport facing the street, with maybe a narrow front door sidelight window and a simple flat-roof carport. The entry is usually tucked under the main roof or a small extension. Later Eichlers often announce themselves with more flair: for example, brightly colored front doors set in a recessed atrium entry, sometimes visible through a screened gate. Some late models even have a double front door opening to the atrium (since the actual weather door is further in). Also, garages became a bit more common later (versus carports earlier). If you see an Eichler with a full two-car garage door on the facade, that could be late 60s (Oakland) – earlier ones mostly had open carports. However, Eichler fronts remain fairly blank in all eras (no big picture windows to the street), maintaining privacy and that “mysterious” curb appeal Eichler intended sfgate.com.
Windows and Glass Details: Both eras have walls of glass, but their placement differs. Floor-to-ceiling glass wrapping around an atrium – allowing views across the house through the courtyard – is a signature later look sfgate.com. Early Eichlers instead have their largest glass only at the rear, not see-through from front to back. You might also notice transom windows (glass panes above doors or high on walls): these are present in both, but later designs used more of them to brighten interior corridors and atriums. If you spot an Eichler with an expansive two-story window section (like the Palo Alto 1970s model with a tall window wall under a sloping roof), that’s Oakland stretching into new territory sfgate.com – early A+Allen houses are strictly single-story volumes.
Interiors and Special Features: Anshen & Allen interiors are noted for their uniform wood paneling and exposed beams throughout – stepping inside, you immediately see the natural mahogany walls and the beamed ceiling running flat or in a gentle slope. Oakland’s later interiors often kept the exposed beams and paneling, but he introduced features like vaulted ceilings (beams that rise to a peak, creating a high volume in living rooms) and sometimes room dividers or planters that helped define spaces in the larger floorplans. Oakland also sometimes placed skylights in clusters (for instance, over a hallway or atrium) which cast dramatic light and shadow – an element less seen in early homes. A distinctive Oakland touch is the “gallery” hallway in the gallery model: a long, wide hall space that feels almost like an art gallery or extra living area, illuminated by skylights, whereas in an early Eichler a hallway is just a narrow passage. Visually, the gallery hall is unique to Oakland’s experimentation and is not found in 1950s Eichlers.
Fireplaces and Focal Points: In early Eichlers, the fireplace (if present) is often a modest brick rectangle in the living room, sometimes double-sided to an adjacent space. Oakland’s homes frequently feature more dramatic fireplace designs – e.g., a tall brick or stone fireplace rising to the ceiling of a vaulted space, becoming a central focal pointdwell.com. In some late models, the fireplace is positioned to be visible from the atrium and living area, adding to that indoor-outdoor ambiance.
Exterior Accents: As mentioned, early Eichlers = mostly wood siding. Later Eichlers might catch your eye with mixed materials: a panel of vertical wood siding next to a painted brick section, or breeze block screen walls in the entry. Eichler exteriors remained mostly flat planes, but Oakland sometimes played with texture more. For example, a late ’60s Eichler tract might show a low concrete block garden wall out front or a pop of accent color on the entry siding. These small touches differentiate them from the uniformly wood-clad earlier houses.
All these clues can help the keen observer identify which architect might have designed a given Eichler. That said, Joseph Eichler had a strong vision that all his architects followed, so there is plenty of overlap. Both early and late Eichlers proudly display post-and-beam lines, open-plan layouts, and integration with nature – the differences are often in degree and style, not in kind.
Impact on the Legacy of the “Eichler Look”
Joseph Eichler’s developments have a cult following today, and both Anshen+Allen and Claude Oakland deserve credit for shaping what we now simply call “Eichler homes.” Their comparative influence can be seen in how we define the Eichler legacy:
Anshen & Allen’s Legacy: They essentially originated the Eichler look. Working hand-in-hand with a bold developer, A+Allen proved that architect-designed modern homes could be built for the middle class. They took concepts from high-end modernist architecture and distilled them into reproducible tract house plans medleyhome.com. The classic elements – open layouts, floor-to-ceiling glass, indoor-outdoor flow, exposed structure – were introduced by Anshen & Allen in Eichler’s first subdivisions. They showed that simplicity and elegance could go together in homebuilding. Also, Anshen & Allen’s early Eichlers were pioneering in social ideals: Eichler homes were open to all races and religions (Joe Eichler insisted on it), and the architecture reflected that openness and progressive optimism. The “California Modern” style Eichler became known for (often emulated by other builders) was largely the brainchild of Anshen & Allen’s designs circa 1949-1955, which “have become modern classics” in their own right sfgate.com. Features like the unassuming facade and glass-walled rear, the integrated carport, the modular but airy interior – all these came from the early period and are fundamental to what people think of as an “Eichler.” If Eichler homes are described as having “single-story, straight lines, open plans, Asian-influenced” design sfgate.com, that description fits the A+Allen homes perfectly. They even incorporated subtle Japanese/Asian influences (post-and-beam construction akin to Japanese timber homes, shoji-like sliding panels, etc.), giving Eichler houses their Zen-like simplicity sfgate.com.
Claude Oakland’s Legacy: If Anshen & Allen set the stage, Claude Oakland wrote the many exciting chapters that followed. He almost certainly designed more Eichlers than anyone else, and thus a vast portion of Eichler houses standing today are Oakland designs sfgate.com. Oakland’s influence on the Eichler look was to stretch it and keep it fresh through the 1960s. The introduction of the atrium model is perhaps the single biggest Eichler design innovation, and while credit is shared, Oakland refined and popularized it in Eichler’s tracts eichlernetwork.com dwell.com. Today, ask any Eichler enthusiast what epitomizes an Eichler, and many will say: “the atrium!” – that magical indoor-outdoor courtyard is loved as an Eichler signature, thanks in large part to Oakland’s work. Oakland also contributed the “super-Eichlers” – larger, sometimes two-story homes that proved modern tract homes could be upscale and ambitious. This helped Eichler homes stay desirable as American families in the ’60s began craving more space. Many of Oakland’s later designs were “larger, taller, and more innovative in both plan and facades” than earlier Eichlers, showing that modern design could evolve with the times eichlernetwork.com. His willingness to experiment (e.g., the gallery model, double A-frame, etc.) expanded the vocabulary of tract modernism. Because of Oakland, Eichler developments in places like Orange County or Lucas Valley have an even more decidedly futuristic mid-century vibe – the Space Age flair of folded plate roofs, atriums, and bold geometric forms dwell.com.
Importantly, both architects’ contributions are now preserved and cherished. Entire Eichler neighborhoods (many featuring mixtures of designs from different years) are protected by design guidelines to maintain that Eichler aesthetic sfgate.com. Enthusiasts today recognize that what Eichler offered was “tract homes designed by notable, talented architects” – specifically Anshen & Allen, Jones & Emmons, and Claude Oakland – and that uniqueness is key to Eichler’s legacy bustler.net. In other words, Eichler homes wouldn’t be what they are without the architects behind them.
Anshen & Allen gave Eichler homes their soul and original form, and Claude Oakland gave them their style evolution and broad legacy. The fact that Eichler homes remain “hypnotic” in their simplicity and uniformity sfgate.com, yet also individually captivating in design, is a testament to the solid foundation and creative growth these architects provided. Oakland himself was content working mostly behind the scenes (he wasn’t a self-promoter sfgate.com), but his designs speak volumes – entire Eichler communities from Silicon Valley to the East Bay showcase his work, standing as functional family homes decades later.
So, which architect are you? If you’re drawn to the purity and cozy human scale of the earliest mid-century modern ideals – Team Anshen & Allen might be your pick. These are the Eichlers for the modernist purist: honest, unadorned, perfectly efficient jewel boxes that embody the optimism of the early 1950s. But if you crave a bit more drama and innovation in your mid-century living – you might side with Team Claude Oakland, where atriums, soaring ceilings, and creative layouts deliver a more daring interpretation of the Eichler philosophy. Both are winners in the pantheon of mid-century design.
Below is a quick comparison summary of their Eichler design styles:
Aspect | Anshen + Allen (Early Eichlers) | Claude Oakland (Late Eichlers)
--------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------
Era of Designs | 1949–1960 | 1960–1974
| Small first subdivisions (Sunnyvale, Palo Alto) | Large tracts (Bay Area, SoCal), custom models
Typical Floorplan | 3-bed, 1-bath or 3/2; ~1,100–1,500 sq ft | 4-bed, 2-bath (often); 1,700–2,400+ sq ft
| Rectilinear; living areas face backyard | Atrium-centric or creative layouts (gallery, split-level)
Signature Features | Open-plan living/dining/kitchen with partial dividers | Central atrium in many models
| Exposed beams, wood paneling | Vaulted ceilings, skylights, clerestories
| Large glass wall at rear, minimal front windows | More glass, creative clerestory use
Rooflines | Flat or low-gable; shallow A-frame | Mix of flat and steep gables, double A-frame
| Clerestory windows in gable ends | “Pop-up” forms; cedar shingle on pitched roofs
| Deep eave overhangs |
Materials & Exterior | Vertical wood siding (redwood/cedar) | Same siding + painted brick or concrete accents
| Minimal ornamentation, carport screens | More privacy walls and entry gates
| Slab foundation w/ radiant heat | Atrium doors visible from front façade
Interior Atmosphere | Intimate and cozy; 8–9 ft ceilings | Airy and dramatic; vaulted ceilings, skylights
| Warm wood paneling, organized flow | Complex pathways, dynamic spatial feel
Indoor-Outdoor Flow | Living room opens to rear patio | Multiple outdoor rooms: atrium, backyard, side court
| Some models with side patio | Nearly every room connects to outdoor space
Notable Innovations | First to bring modernism to California tract homes | Made atrium a defining Eichler feature
| Introduced radiant heat, open plans | Bold experiments: Gallery model, double A-frames
| Courtyard entry tested but rare early on | Semi-two-story models showed ambition in tract design
Table: Comparison of Anshen+Allen’s early Eichler designs vs. Claude Oakland’s later Eichler designs.
Both columns in the table exemplify authentic Eichler qualities, but each with its own flavor. Enthusiasts today might gravitate to the earlier designs for their purity and historical significance, or to the later designs for their grand atriums and expanded comforts. Neither would exist without the other – Oakland built on the foundation Anshen & Allen laid, and Eichler’s vision needed both phases to fully bloom.
Conclusion
The Eichler home is ultimately a product of collaboration – Joseph Eichler’s daring vision and the architects’ creative skill. In the tale of Claude Oakland vs. Anshen + Allen, there’s no real loser. Together, they delivered a continuum of mid-century modern innovation: from the first modest, glass-walled bungalows that surprised 1950s suburbia to the later atrium-centered masterpieces that kept Eichler homes at the cutting edge of design.
For design and architecture aficionados, comparing their work is like tasting two vintages of a great wine. Anshen & Allen’s designs are the crisp first sip – bold for their time, foundational, with notes of Wrightian influence and Californian indoor-outdoor ease. Claude Oakland’s designs are the refined later vintage – more complex on the palate, adventurous, with a dramatic finish (sometimes literally, with that stunning atrium view!). Both satisfy in different ways.
So, “which architect are you?” If you lean towards clean simplicity, intimate scale, and the romance of the Eichler origin story, you might be channeling Anshen + Allen. If you prefer a bit more swagger in your modernism – glass ceilings, atrium gardens, and spacious versatility – then Claude Oakland might be your match. Either way, as you stroll through an Eichler neighborhood and admire the post-and-beam silhouettes, remember that both architects’ legacies live on in these homes. They collectively ensured that Eichler’s tracts were not cookie-cutter boxes, but rather “unique neighborhoods with qualities that residents love”, where “the simplicity and continuity” of design create a truly special “way of life”sfgate.com.
In the end, the real winner of this smackdown is everyone who gets to live in or explore an Eichler home, experiencing first-hand the genius of great design made accessible. Whether it’s an early gem or a late-model showstopper, Eichler homes continue to inspire – thanks to the contrasting and complementary talents of Claude Oakland and Anshen + Allen.
With decades of experience and deep architectural knowledge, Eric and Janelle Boyenga of the Boyenga Team at Compass are trusted Eichler home experts in Silicon Valley. Whether you're buying your first mid-century modern gem or selling a classic atrium model, the Boyenga Team combines next-gen tech tools with unmatched Eichler expertise to deliver exceptional results.