Lost Eichler Dreams: Unbuilt Communities and Unrealized Designs
Joseph Eichler, famed mid-century developer of modern tract homes, left an indelible mark on California’s suburbs. Between 1949 and 1966, his firm Eichler Homes, Inc. built over 11,000 sleek, modern houses across Northern and Southern California modernhaustheory.com. Eichler’s ambitious vision extended beyond individual homes – he imagined entire planned communities with parks, pools, and inclusive neighborhoods. However, not all of Eichler’s plans came to fruition. In the mid-1960s, Eichler’s bold forays into new markets and housing types stretched his finances thin, culminating in a 1967 bankruptcynorthbaybiz.com. This sudden collapse left several developments unfinished or canceled. In this report, we explore these “lost” Eichler projects – the planned-but-never-built communities, prototype designs that saw only limited realization, and post-1966 architectural plans that ultimately remained on the drawing board. We examine their proposed locations, design details, the reasons they stalled, and any surviving documentation (including sketches or plans).
Below, we summarize the major unbuilt or unfinished Eichler initiatives in Northern California, followed by detailed sections on each:
🏗 Planned Eichler Projects – Built, Abandoned & Reimagined
Planned Project | Location | Year(s) | Outcome / Status
Harbor Pointe (Strawberry Point) – 99-home tract | Mill Valley, Marin County | 1965–66 | Partially built: ~13 of 99 homes completed; remainder canceled due to Eichler Homes bankruptcy (sfgate.com)
South Land Park Hills – 140-home subdivision | Sacramento (South Land Park Hills) | 1956–early ’60s| Partially built: ~60 of 140 homes completed; project halted mid-way (en.wikipedia.org)
San Mateo High-Rise Apartments | San Mateo, CA | 1964 (planned)| Canceled: Proposed high-rise apartment complex; never built (eichlernetwork.com)
Stanford Campus Recreation Center | Stanford University, CA | 1962 (planned)| Canceled: Planned Jones & Emmons–designed facility; never constructed (eichlernetwork.com)
Upper Lucas Valley Expansion | Lucas Valley, Marin County | 1963–67 | Interrupted: 66 homes left unfinished in 1967; later completed by others (northbaybiz.com)
Midrock Townhouses – 2-story Eichler row houses | Mountain View, Santa Clara County | 1971–72 | Built prototype: 23 townhouse units built; no further Eichler townhome communities followed (eichlernetwork.com)
(Table: Notable Eichler developments that were never completed or never built as planned.)
Ambitious Tracts Cut Short
Eichler’s core business was building large tracts of modern single-family homes. In a few cases, he acquired land and drew up plans for entire neighborhoods that ultimately did not fully materialize. Financial strains and shifting markets in the late 1960s led to the truncation of some of these projects.
Harbor Pointe (Strawberry Point, Marin County): In 1965, Joseph Eichler set out to develop a peninsula on San Francisco Bay in Marin into an exclusive Eichler enclave. Dubbed “Harbor Pointe,” the plan called for 99 custom Eichler homes on scenic waterfront and hillside lots, each oriented for sweeping bay views eichlernetwork.com. These would have been some of Eichler’s most high-end models, larger in size (many two-story designs) and positioned on expansive sites. Eichler “promised to build 99 homes” on the Strawberry Point spit eichlernetwork.com and began construction around 1965–66. However, as Eichler’s company slid toward bankruptcy, the project stalled. Only about 12–15 homes were actually completed – “a little more than a dozen” according to local real estate records sfgate.com. Those few finished houses (on Great Circle Drive and Starboard Court in Mill Valley’s Strawberry Point) stand today as rare, grand Eichlers – around 3,600+ sq ft with two levels, atypically large for Eichler designs sfgate.com. The remaining lots were never built out by Eichler. His 1967 bankruptcy halted Harbor Pointe, making the unfinished tract one of the most prominent “lost” Eichler communities. (Subsequently, other developers built homes in the area in later years, but the cohesive Eichler vision for Strawberry Point was never realized.) Reasons for the cancellation tie directly to Eichler’s financial collapse – by mid-1960s his costly experiments (like high-rises and new models) sapped resources needed to complete this development sfgate.comnorthbaybiz.com.
South Land Park Hills (Sacramento): Eichler’s expansion beyond the Bay Area included a foray into Sacramento. In the late 1950s, Eichler planned a large tract in the South Land Park Hills neighborhood of Sacramento, intending to bring his modern homes to the capital region. Approximately 140 Eichler houses were originally planned for South Land Park Hills en.wikipedia.org. Eichler did build some homes there – roughly 60 were finished – but the project was never completed. Records indicate the tract “60 were finished” out of about 140 planned en.wikipedia.org, leaving dozens of lots unbuilt or later built by others. The likely cause was sluggish sales or overextension; Sacramento’s market may not have absorbed the full development, and Eichler was simultaneously focusing on Bay Area projects. Today, around 55 Eichler homes remain in South Land Park (some were lost to later teardown or remodeling) en.wikipedia.org. This partial build makes South Land Park a “half-lost” Eichler tract – an ambitious plan scaled back in reality. Despite the setback, the existing Sacramento Eichlers are prized by enthusiasts, and they hint at what a larger Eichler presence in that city might have been.
Upper Lucas Valley Unfinished Phase (Marin County): Upper Lucas Valley in Marin was successfully developed by Eichler in the mid-1960s into a beautiful community of one-story modern homes with community amenities. However, Eichler’s bankruptcy struck before the final phase was done. When Eichler Homes, Inc. **declared bankruptcy in 1967, it left 66 houses in Upper Lucas Valley partially built or unsold northbaybiz.com. Rather than standing as vacant frames forever, these homes were eventually completed under the supervision of builder Kitty Munson (of Lucas Valley Properties) in the late 1960s northbaybiz.com. In this case, the development itself wasn’t canceled – the design and construction were finished by another entity – so Upper Lucas Valley ultimately achieved Eichler’s vision. But it’s notable that, at the moment of Eichler’s company failure, this neighborhood nearly became a casualty. The interruption also illustrates how abruptly Eichler’s empire collapsed. Had a rescuer not stepped in, Marin’s Lucas Valley tract might have been frozen in time with dozens of skeletal houses. Fortunately, Munson saw the project through, and today Upper Lucas Valley’s Eichlers appear as a complete, cohesive tract – making it an almost lost Eichler community that was saved northbaybiz.com.
Unbuilt Visions in Multifamily and Urban Projects
By the early-to-mid 1960s, Joe Eichler began exploring projects beyond his hallmark suburban subdivisions. He collaborated with architects on apartments, townhouses, and even high-rises – bold moves that were not all realized. Several planned multifamily or urban Eichler projects were never built, as Eichler navigated unfamiliar territory and rising costs.
San Mateo High-Rise Proposal (1964): As part of Eichler’s push into higher-density housing, he conceived a high-rise apartment development on the Peninsula. In 1964, Eichler proposed a high-rise apartment complex in San Mateo, marking a departure from his single-family tracts eichlernetwork.com. Details on the design are scarce, but it likely would have been a modern mid-rise or high-rise tower, possibly catering to upscale renters. Eichler ultimately did not build this project. According to Eichler historian Dave Weinstein, this San Mateo high-rise scheme was “never built” eichlernetwork.com – it remained a paper project. One reason it stalled could be Eichler’s pivot to focus on San Francisco, where he soon invested in building The Summit (a luxury high-rise on Russian Hill, completed in 1965). Eichler may have “recast” his San Mateo tower idea into The Summit or other projectseichlernetwork.com. It’s also possible local opposition or financing issues in San Mateo discouraged the plan. Regardless, the Peninsula missed out on an Eichler-designed apartment tower, which exists only in archives and Eichler’s unfulfilled plans.
Geneva Towers and Other Urban Experiments: Around the same time, Eichler embarked on actual multifamily builds in San Francisco – notably the twin 18-story Geneva Towers in Visitacion Valley (1965–66) and the Laguna Heights/Cleary Court apartments in the Western Addition. These were built (and in Geneva’s case, disastrously managed, leading to eventual demolition in 1998) sf.curbed.com. We mention them here because their troubled execution directly impacted Eichler’s ability to pursue other plans. The massive cost overruns and management challenges of Geneva Towers “overextended” Eichler’s company sf.curbed.com, pushing it into financial distress. As a result, some planned projects were shelved as resources were diverted. For example, Eichler had envisioned additional “tower in the park”-style developments and even more rowhouse communities in San Francisco. One city plan under Redevelopment – to build mid-rise apartments alongside Eichler’s Diamond Heights houses – fell through when funding dried up and city policy shifted (partly in reaction to Eichler’s 30-story Summit tower stirring controversy) sf.curbed.com. In short, Eichler’s urban ventures met mixed success: a few were built, but others, like the San Mateo high-rise and potential Diamond Heights apartments, never left the drawing board.
Midrock Court Townhouses (Mountain View, 1971): After the bankruptcy of Eichler Homes, Joe Eichler continued working in a smaller capacity under new entities (J.L. Eichler Associates, etc.). One fascinating prototype from the post-1966 era is Midrock, a cluster of two-story townhomes in Mountain View. Built in 1971–72, the Midrock development consists of 23 modern townhouses on Midrock Court and adjacent Rock Street eichlernetwork.com. These units were designed to “function as much as possible like a single-family home” despite being attached, a concept Eichler explored to provide higher density without sacrificing the Eichler indoor-outdoor feel eichlernetwork.com. The Midrock project was fully realized on a small scale – all 23 units were completed – but it represents an unrealized larger direction. Eichler had hoped townhouses/condos might become a new product line, expanding his reach in the 1970s. In fact, Midrock was among Eichler’s most unusual experiments eichlernetwork.com, and one can imagine he might have planned additional townhouse communities if circumstances allowed. However, Eichler passed away in 1974, and no further Eichler-designed townhome tracts were built. Thus, Midrock stands as a lone built prototype of a concept that “never was” extended. It hints at Eichler’s unrealized vision of blending his modern style into cooperative or higher-density living – a path cut short by his death and the end of his company’s operations.
Other Unrealized Designs and Prototypes
Beyond large developments, Eichler and his architects had smaller-scale plans and prototype designs that didn’t reach production. Some remained as concepts or were built only as one-off models:
Stanford “Recreation Center” (1962): Eichler didn’t only build houses – he sometimes planned community facilities. In 1962, Eichler’s go-to architects Jones & Emmons drew up plans for a recreational facility at Stanford University eichlernetwork.com. This project, possibly a modern clubhouse or community center, was to serve Stanford’s campus or faculty housing area. It was an intriguing collaboration – the design was by Jones & Emmons, and Eichler even brought in a notable landscape architect to shape the grounds (the plan “would have been landscaped by” a prominent designer, name not fully reported) eichlernetwork.com. Unfortunately, this Stanford recreation center never broke ground. It’s unclear if the project was commissioned by Stanford and then canceled, or if Eichler proposed it independently. Given that Jones & Emmons and Eichler were actively building 100 faculty homes on Stanford land in the late 1950s usmodernist.org, the recreation center might have been intended to complement those residences. The unbuilt 1962 Stanford facility remains an obscure footnote; archival files (in the Claude Oakland collection) contain drawings and plans public.ucbeda.aspace.cdlib.org, but on campus no physical trace exists. Stanford instead got a computation center on that site in the 1960s eichlernetwork.com. This is a prime example of an Eichler-planned amenity that “never were” – a lost chance to see Eichler’s modernist touch in an institutional recreational building.
Unrealized Model Homes and Technical Innovations: Throughout Eichler’s career, many experimental models were designed, though almost all saw at least one built example. An example is the X-100 Steel House (1956) – a prototype all-steel Eichler house exhibited in San Mateo. The X-100 was actually built (and still stands as a one-off home), but Eichler had hoped it would lead to entire tracts of steel-framed houses, which never happened due to cost. Similarly, in the early 1960s Eichler’s architects developed duplex and rowhouse designs that were never utilized at the time. (Notably, Jones & Emmons designed duplex models for Eichler in 1953 that Eichler did not end up building theneichlernetwork.com – though Eichler later built a few duplexes in 1962 in Redwood City eichlernetwork.com.) In the late 1960s, new two-story models were drawn up to attract move-up buyers – these “executive” Eichlers debuted in Harbor Pointe/Strawberry and Foster City, but on a limited basis. Eichler’s companies after 1966 (such as Nonpareil Homes, Inc. and Alsco Homes, Inc.) also explored modern homebuilding with different methods. For example, Alsco Homes (1973–74) suggests Eichler was investigating pre-fabricated or modular construction (the name hints at “All Steel Company” or similar) – though no known Alsco housing tract was completed before Eichler’s death. In essence, post-1966 Eichler designs like the Midrock townhouses and large two-story plans were prototypes that did not see mass production. They remain tantalizing “what-ifs” – had Eichler had stable financing and a few more years, we might have seen more Eichler condominiums, more large-format homes, even mid-rise communities. Instead, these designs exist as isolated examples or in archives, underscoring how abruptly Eichler’s prolific building era ended.
Conclusion
Joseph Eichler’s legacy is rightly defined by the thousands of homes he built – yet the unbuilt Eichler projects shed light on his aspirations and the challenges that finally overtook him. The tales of Harbor Pointe’s halted build, the Sacramento tract cut in half, and the never-realized Stanford center all illustrate the gap between Eichler’s utopian vision and the economic reality of speculative development. Many factors played a role: Eichler’s unwavering commitment to quality modern design sometimes meant slim profit margins; his late-career ventures (high-rises, new home types) carried high risks. By 1967, those risks caught up to him, leaving dream projects on the drawing board.
And yet, even in their cancellation or incompletion, these “lost” Eichler projects are instructive. They reveal Eichler’s forward-looking ideas – from integrating recreation amenities into neighborhoods, to experimenting with higher-density modern living, to building in dramatic sites like bayfront hillsides. They also highlight Eichler’s impact: communities like Upper Lucas Valley or Foster City were built out, if not by Eichler then by others following his plans, a testament to the strength of his concepts. The surviving fragments (like the Strawberry Point dozen, or the lone Midrock Court townhouses) are cherished by owners and historians as unicorns in Eichler’s oeuvre – offering a glimpse of what might have been on a larger scale.
Today, interest in mid-century modern architecture has led researchers to rediscover these unbuilt Eichler chapters. Archived blueprints, city planning files, and oral histories (many documented by the Eichler Network and historians like Dave Weinstein) keep the memory of these projects alive. Some even refer to “the land of the lost Eichlers” – for instance, Oakland’s Sequoyah Hills tract earned that nickname because only 48 of a planned larger project were built there public.ucbeda.aspace.cdlib.org. While we cannot walk through a 1960s Eichler high-rise or swim at an Eichler Stanford club, we can study the plans and imagine the alternate reality where all of Eichler’s bold projects succeeded.
In the end, the unbuilt and unrealized designs are as much a part of Eichler’s legacy as the iconic atrium houses that were completed. They underscore Eichler’s reputation as not just a builder, but a visionary who often thought ahead of his time. These “lost Eichlers” remind us that history can take a different turn – a few financial challenges or shifts in taste, and even a genius’s grand plans may remain forever on paper. Thanks to preservation of records and the enduring interest in Eichler’s work, those plans are not forgotten, allowing us to appreciate the full scope of Joseph Eichler’s modernist dream.
Sources
Eichler, Joseph – Wikipedia (overview of Eichler’s developments and company timeline) en.wikipedia.org.
Weinstein, Dave – “The Eichlers That Never Were,” Eichler Network (Nov. 2, 2022) – via Eichler Network/CA-Modern blog (discusses projects Eichler planned but didn’t build, including Stanford facility and San Mateo high-rise) eichlernetwork.comeichlernetwork.com.
Erwert, Anna Marie – “Historic 2-story waterfront Bay Area Eichler for sale for $3M,” SFGate (June 14, 2023) – details on Mill Valley Strawberry Point Eichlers and Eichler’s Harbor Pointe plansfgate.com.
Eichler Network archival articles: “Neighbors are Friends in Bayside Eichlers” (profiles Strawberry Point; notes 99 promised vs 13 built) eichlernetwork.com; “Midrock Eichlers” (Mountain View townhouses, 1971) eichlernetwork.com.
Brandi, Richard – Journal of Planning History via Curbed SF – “Joseph Eichler built a suburb in SF” (May 30, 2017) – background on Diamond Heights plan and Eichler’s Summit tower impactsf.curbed.com.
NorthBay biz (Apr. 2017) – “Homes of Future Past” by Alexandra Russell – history of Lucas Valley Eichlers and Eichler’s bankruptcy in 1967 leaving 66 homes unfinished northbaybiz.com.
Wikipedia – “South Land Park Eichlers” (Sacramento) – notes planned vs built numbers en.wikipedia.org.
Palo Alto Online (Jan. 2015) – “Eichler’s experimental ‘utopia’ remains unchanged since 1954” – context on Greenmeadow and Eichler community amenities.
City of Palo Alto Historic Resources report – mentions Eichler’s non-discrimination policy and planning principlesen.wikipedia.org.
Sources