Redwood City

Redwood City Eichler Homes

Redwood City’s Mid-Century Modern Enclaves: Redwood City, located in the heart of the Bay Area’s Peninsula, is home to a collection of Eichler-designed homes that epitomize mid-century modern architecture. During the early 1950s, Joseph Eichler – the visionary developer known for bringing modernist homes to the mainstream – built roughly 160 homes in Redwood City eichlerhomesforsale.com. These Eichler homes were developed across several small residential tracts between 1950 and 1954, making Redwood City one of Eichler’s earliest ventures in San Mateo County eichlerhomesforsale.com. Today, these neighborhoods remain a point of pride for the community, cherished for their distinctive design and historical significance as part of Eichler’s legacy.

Atherwood: Redwood City’s First Eichler Tract (1950)

Aerial view of Redwood City's Atherwood Eichler tract, built in 1950 as the city’s first Eichler development (64 homes). This subdivision introduced Eichler’s modernist style to San Mateo County.

Atherwood was Joseph Eichler’s first project in Redwood City, completed in late 1950. Nestled between Parkwood Way, Atherwood Avenue, and Oakfield Avenue near the Atherton border, Atherwood is Redwood City’s largest Eichler tract with 64 single-story homes. The name “Atherwood” itself is a portmanteau of Atherton and Redwood City, reflecting its location on the city boundary. These houses were classic early Eichlers: modest 3-bedroom floor plans with 1 or 2 bathrooms, open-beam post-and-beam construction, and floor-to-ceiling glass that blurs the line between indoors and outdoors eichlerhomesforsale.com. Notably, Atherwood included several experimental butterfly roof designs – 10 houses with dramatic butterfly roofs – making it the first housing tract in California to feature that roof style eichlerhomesforsale.com. This architectural boldness earned Atherwood national acclaim. In fact, Architectural Forum magazine honored Atherwood as a “Subdivision of the Year” in 1950, one of only four developments (and the only one outside Palo Alto) to receive that distinctionen.wikipedia.orgatriare.com. (The other three honored subdivisions were Eichler’s El Centro Gardens, Green Gables Addition, and Greer Park – all in Palo Alto.) Atherwood’s success pioneered Eichler’s expansion into the mid-Peninsula and set the stage for additional Eichler neighborhoods in Redwood City eichlerhomesforsale.com.

Fairwood and Sequoia Meadow: Continuing Eichler’s Redwood City Expansion

After Atherwood, Eichler expanded his mid-century modern footprint in Redwood City with two more small tracts in the early 1950s eichlerhomesforsale.com. These developments continued Eichler’s mission of bringing modern design to average American families, each with its own character:

• Fairwood (Lyons Street, 1953): In 1953, Eichler built the Fairwood tract on Lyons Street, a single-block enclave near today’s Red Morton Park eichlerhomesforsale.com. This development comprised around 28 homes eichlerhomesforsale.com (the entire block of Lyons Street), originally known as “Fairwood” but often simply called the Lyons Street Eichlers today eichlernetwork.com. Fairwood’s homes were slightly larger models than Atherwood’s, averaging just over 1,300 sq ft with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths eichlerhomesforsale.com. These designs reflected Eichler’s evolving approach for growing middle-class families, offering a bit more space and comfort while retaining the signature Eichler features of open layouts and walls of glass eichlerhomesforsale.com. Lyons Street’s picturesque row of Eichlers—28 modest, flat-roofed homes in two straight lines beneath a canopy of camphor trees—has become a beloved neighborhood often noted for its tight-knit community spirit eichlernetwork.com. Fairwood was the second Eichler tract in Redwood City and demonstrated Eichler’s continuing commitment to modernist principles in suburban settings.
  
  

• Sequoia Meadow (Northumberland & Cypress, 1954): The last Eichler single-family tract built in Redwood City was Sequoia Meadow, completed in 1954. Located just north of Atherwood in the Redwood Oaks area, this small cluster of Eichler homes is found along Northumberland Avenue and Cypress Street. Sequoia Meadow’s homes were compact designs, primarily single-story 3-bedroom, 2-bath layouts of about 1,110 sq ft. A few larger models (up to roughly 1,400 sq ft) were mixed in to offer extra space for some buyers. Despite their smaller size, these houses embodied the full Eichler aesthetic: open-plan living areas, broad roof overhangs, and glass walls opening onto private yards eichlerhomesforsale.com. The Sequoia Meadow tract represents Eichler’s continued refinement of design in the mid-1950s – still true to his core principles of simplicity and indoor-outdoor harmony, but tailored to a modest scale. With its completion in 1954, Eichler’s single-family developments in Redwood City concluded, marking the end of an era in which approximately 160 Eichler houses had been built citywide from 1950 through 1954 walkingredwoodcity.com.
  
  

Architectural Note: All of Redwood City’s Eichler homes from this period were built before Eichler introduced the atrium concept (the open-air center atrium that debuted in 1957), so these houses lack atriums and instead feature more traditional post-and-beam interiors and glass window walls facing the back yard eichlerhomesforsale.com. They also include period details characteristic of early-’50s Eichlers, such as wooden sliding doors (aluminum sliding doors became common in later years) and simple, low-sloped rooflines eichlerhomesforsale.com. Many of the designs in Redwood City were by Eichler’s first architect collaborators Anshen + Allen, with some input later from Jones & Emmons, which results in a mix of architectural touches across the tracts walkingredwoodcity.com. What unifies them is Eichler’s design philosophy: an emphasis on open floor plans, integration of indoor and outdoor spaces, and clean, modern lines. As in other Eichler communities, the Redwood City Eichlers are oriented toward nature – living rooms open via floor-to-ceiling glass to patios and yards, making “indoor-outdoor living” a daily reality eichlerhomesforsale.com.

Notable Recognition and Legacy in Design

Eichler’s work in Redwood City not only provided new housing but also garnered professional acclaim, highlighting the impact of these designs on mid-century residential architecture. As mentioned, the Atherwood tract earned national recognition when Architectural Forum named it a Subdivision of the Year in 1950. This honor underscored how innovative Eichler’s approach was – bringing modern architecture to production housing – and it put Redwood City’s Eichler neighborhood on the map alongside others in Palo Alto that year. The early Redwood City Eichlers also had an influence on architectural trends; for example, Atherwood’s use of butterfly roofs predated other famous uses of that roof style in California developments by several years. Today, Eichler enthusiasts and architects look back at these Redwood City tracts as quintessential examples of mid-century modern suburban design, preserving the optimism and forward-thinking design of the post-war era eichlerhomesforsale.com.

In Redwood City, these Eichler neighborhoods have largely stood the test of time. Homeowners take pride in their unique architecture, and many have undertaken renovations that respect the original design ethos. Community efforts, including local guidelines and resources, help ensure that updates (such as window replacements or energy-efficiency upgrades) remain in harmony with Eichler’s mid-century style eichlerhomesforsale.com. The result is that strolling down streets like Atherwood, Lyons, or Northumberland today offers a glimpse into 1950s modernism – a “living legacy” of Joseph Eichler’s experiment in redefining the American suburb eichlerhomesforsale.com.

Eichler’s Rare Duplexes on Roble Avenue (1956)

An Eichler duplex on Roble Avenue in Redwood City, showing the twin carports and low-gabled roofline of this rare mid-century Eichler rental development.

While Eichler’s Redwood City story is mostly about single-family homes, Redwood City holds a special place in Eichler lore for another reason: it’s the site of Eichler’s pioneering duplex project. In 1956, Joseph Eichler took the unusual step of building a cluster of mid-century modern duplexes on Roble Avenue – a quiet cul-de-sac in the Redwood Oaks neighborhood eichlerhomesforsale.com. Eichler Homes constructed five duplex buildings (ten units total) here, which were originally offered as rental homes rather than for sale eichlernetwork.com. This marked Eichler’s first (and ultimately only) foray into multi-family rental housing, showcasing his willingness to experiment with new housing forms eichlernetwork.com. Each duplex structure on Roble Avenue features two side-by-side units under one roof, each unit roughly 2 bedrooms and 1 bath with its own front entrance and private backyard space zillow.com. The buildings are thoughtfully designed with paired carports for the two units and distinct front doors and utility rooms for each, giving the appearance of a harmonious pair of Eichler homes joined together eichlerhomesforsale.com. Architecturally, these duplexes retain all the Eichler hallmarks – post-and-beam construction, open-plan interiors, walls of glass, and low-gabled roofs extending over the carports eichlernetwork.com. From the street, the low profile and clean lines are unmistakably Eichler, blending in with the surrounding single-story 1940s-50s houses yet standing out for their modern design eichlerhomesforsale.com.

Eichler’s Roble Avenue duplexes were advertised in 1956 as “Deluxe Eichler Duplexes for lease” eichlerhomesforsale.com, highlighting features like radiant floor heating and floor-to-ceiling windows that brought in ample light. Real estate professionals and Eichler aficionados today consider these homes a unique gem in Eichler’s body of work because Eichler did not pursue duplex construction in his later projects eichlerhomesforsale.com. In other words, Redwood City’s duplex enclave is essentially a one-of-a-kind Eichler experiment. The fact that Joe Eichler himself ventured into income properties here – departing from his usual for-sale tract homes – speaks to his broad view of housing solutions and willingness to innovate. According to Eichler’s biographers, Jones & Emmons (one of Eichler’s favored architectural firms) had even drawn up plans for duplex units a few years earlier, around 1953, but those were never built until Eichler green-lit the Roble Avenue project in 1956 eichlernetwork.com.

Over the decades, these duplex units have been well-maintained and in some cases tastefully updated. Many still feature the original Philippine mahogany paneling and brick fireplaces, now complemented by modern amenities, illustrating how adaptable Eichler’s designs are to contemporary living eichlerhomesforsale.com zillow.com. The indoor-outdoor living concept is very much alive in the duplexes: large glass sliders open from each living room to a private patio, allowing residents to enjoy California’s climate just as Eichler intended eichlerhomesforsale.com. The community around the Roble duplexes remains proud of this architectural heritage; there’s a shared understanding among owners and tenants of the importance of preserving the Eichler aesthetic. Indeed, Redwood City’s Eichler owners (both in the single-family tracts and the duplexes) often follow design guidelines for renovations that align with Eichler’s original principles – for example, keeping the post-and-beam ceilings exposed and using period-appropriate materials whenever possible eichlerhomesforsale.com.

Historically, the Roble Avenue duplex project is significant as Eichler’s early exploration of higher-density housing. It foreshadowed some of his later ventures: after the mid-1950s, Eichler expanded into building townhouse communities (such as Eichler’s X-Line homes and later Eichler-designed condominiums) and even planned high-rise apartment towers, demonstrating his adaptability to different housing markets eichlerhomesforsale.com. In fact, the Roble duplexes can be seen as a precursor to Eichler’s Greenmeadow Apartments in Palo Alto, a larger Eichler-built apartment complex in the late 1950s eichlerhomesforsale.com. However, no other duplex clusters were built by Eichler after the Redwood City experiment, which makes these ten units particularly special.

Legacy and Influence: Although Eichler Homes did not focus on rentals in the long run, the Redwood City duplexes hold a special spot in Eichler’s legacy. They demonstrate that Eichler’s modernist vision could be applied to a multi-family format without losing its essence. This bold experiment did not go unnoticed by others – it helped inspire subsequent builders of mid-century modern homes. Notably, in 1959, just a few years after the Roble Avenue project, the Streng Brothers in Sacramento began developing Eichler-inspired modern homes, having studied Eichler’s work and even gained encouragement directly from Joe Eichler eichlernetwork.com. The Strengs’ homes (and others like Robert Rummer’s in Oregon) carried forward the torch of Eichler’s design philosophy, building on ideas proven in communities like Redwood City. Today, the Eichler homes of Redwood City – from the Atherwood tract to the Roble duplexes – stand as an enduring legacy of Joseph Eichler’s innovative approach to residential architecture. They continue to captivate architecture enthusiasts and provide beloved homes for their residents, encapsulating a unique chapter in California’s mid-century modern movement eichlerhomesforsale.com.

References

• Eichler Network (2020). Joe Eichler Timeline 3: Experiments Mark the 1950s eichlernetwork.com. (Details Eichler’s 1956 duplex project in Redwood City and its context in Eichler’s career.)

• Boyenga Team – Eichler Homes For Sale (2023). The Eichler Neighborhoods of Redwood City: A Mid-Century Modern Haven eichlerhomesforsale.com. (Provides an overview of Eichler tracts in Redwood City, including construction years, home counts, and design features.)

• Walking Redwood City (Local Blog, 2019) – Redwood Oaks Neighborhood walkingredwoodcity.com. (Comments from residents confirming the number of Eichler homes built in Redwood City and their distribution in the city.)

• Wikipedia. Atherwood – Eichler Subdivisionen.wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org. (Encyclopedia entry with specifics on the Atherwood tract: year built, architect, number of homes, and its award in 1950.)

• Eichler Homes For Sale Blog (2023). Exploring the Unique Eichler Duplexes of Redwood City eichlerhomesforsale.com. (Detailed blog post about the Roble Avenue duplexes, describing their design and significance.)

• Eichler Network (Dave Weinstein, n.d.). Call of the Canopy eichlernetwork.com. (Article highlighting community and ambiance on Lyons Street, originally the Fairwood tract, including the number of Eichler homes there.)

• Zillow Listing – 390 Roble Ave, Redwood Cityzillow.com. (Real estate listing excerpt describing the Eichler duplex units’ features like 2BD/1BA layout, floor-to-ceiling windows, etc.)

• Eichler Network (1950s Eichler design features)eichlerhomesforsale.com. (Discussion of architectural features common to Eichler homes, such as flat roofs, open floor plans, and glass walls, which apply to the Redwood City Eichlers.)