Book Review: Eichler Homes: Design for Living

Eichler deserves better

I remember reading this in 1995 when it came out and thinking it's about time there was a book about this remarkable builder but having recently read it again I must agree with the two star reviewer that it just isn't that good. It certainly isn't as good as the Adamson's book which I consider the definitive work on Joe Eichler and his company.

As well as the light weight text a major problem with the book is the rather amateurish presentation. A difference between Adamson's book and this one is that here nearly all the photos are in color but I don't think that is too critical in an architectural title. What is important is that images give a sense of space and detail inside the structure and a sense of form from the outside. So many of the color photos in the book are quite dark and that is made worse by having many of them too small on the page.

Far too many pages have empty space and relatively small photos. The few floor plans that were included are also wasted because of smallness. There is, on page ninety-nine, a blueprint that would have been fascinating if it was readable, part of it has been cut off and a rather meaningless photo of a heating element has been laid over another part of the plan. It sums up a major design problem: so many images have been used as graphic shapes on the page rather photos that reveal detail about the building to the reader. The designer has just applied personal design whimsy to each page.

Paul Adamson's Eichler book is the one if you want to know about this California builder and it's a lot cheaper, too.

Eichler Homes: Design for Living is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

The real Eichler book on top.

Caption panel cut into both photos when there is plenty of white space elsewhere for it.

Small photo, lots of white space and a mono photo of whatever.

Right: there is a floor plan on this page that is so small it is useless.

Left: too small floor plan that says nothing.

Right: too small floor plan, small color photo and a large abstract photo in black and white.

Left: so many of the color photos are just too dark to give any meaningful information.

Right: tiny color photos that don't do the reader any favors.

Right: a technical plan that could give the reader some information just used as a graphic element on the page and therefoer wasted.

There are some big photos that give the reader some appreciation of the wonderful Eichler homes.

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