Bitchen architecture writin', too. I wonder if you can dim those high-beamed ceilings.

Historic status? Maybe, but if so, they should get in line behind the Ain tract in Mar Vista.

I was eager to see a photo or two. Wonder why they don't run them in their online edition.

Google "A. Quincy Jones" in quotes for abundant peeks.

I don't get the article at all, except as a real estate article. "The man was an architecture, a visionary, a magician...." It makes Eichler look more like an architect than like the developer he was. (It does mention Jones parenthetically, as being part of some "posse").

Oh, and this: "...built only 100 of these beauties..." That's not writing on architecture, that's writing on real estate, straight out of the brochure. In fact, instead of asking a prof about Jones's work for Eichler, who might have been able to straighten a few things out for him, like who the hell Eichler was, Himmelsbach invites a Re/Max real estate agent to discuss availability.

Can't blame the writer for not being able to handle a visit to the library or the university to find out a few things; but I can blame Yet Another Editor who doesn't know shit about architecture, and who doens't care to know.

Hmm, I don't think it was offered as a piece about architecture. It's a column about the Valley, and a short one. And sure, the column could have been about lots of other things, but if he was going ask about availability to buy, what's wrong with asking a realtor?

A broader question is, if you're writing an article celebrating historic design, should you be asking also about availability to buy? That looks like plain old hype.

Still, I see your point: reading a "Valley Boy" column makes a difference: our expectations for accuracy and ethos are are lower, and for personal interpretation is higher. We don't care so much if a developer is called an architect, or if talk about design degenerates into sell-side realtor hype.

I will point out that there was nothing in your link indicating that this was a Valley Boy-specific column (only that we were "speaking of the Valley"), nor was there at the link itself, and I'll leave it at that. I'm sure you've mentioned this column before, but with some columns, it helps to have some IDs on hand every time.

>>if you're writing an article celebrating historic design, should you be asking also about availability to buy?

Sure, why not? It's good information, it's more than you knew. So you learned something - get over it. I appreciate that you would have written the piece differently, and from your points I'm guessing you would done the standard Eichler design piece. I've researched him and the Balboa Highlands development a little over the years and the only factual quibble I have with Himmelsbach's column is that Eichler wasn't himself an architect. Even so, he had more impact on residential design than many architects. Your contention that the piece is mere hype is weakened, seems to me, by the guy who says "they’re not great construction...they’re really cheap."

As for the Ain development, well, yes it's historic too. So are many others. So? (btw, Ain's Mar Vista tract is already within a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone.)

These homes did fall outside the realm of "serious architecture" until the recent resurgence of interest in modernist domestic architecture. In many cases the neighborhoods and the houses in them were kept intact by quirky individual homeowners who liked their Eichlers, and by realtors who became enthusiasts. A little google on eichler will convince you of this, e.g.

http://www.eichlerhomes.com/
http://www.eichlersocal.com/tmbgallery.htm (pictures!)

So it's perfectly reasonable to quote a realtor. Now, if they had quoted a Realtor, then I might just gag.

If you have an interest in this kind of architecture, it's worth a visit to an Eichler development to see them in the wild. There's no question whatsoever that these neighborhoods deserve a historical designation, it's just a matter of when it happens.

If one of my writing students submitted a piece with the phrase:

These homes are just so conceptually bitchen

...I would be so not pleased.

I was going to let this all slide by, but I suppose I should first apologize for my factual error that described Eichler as an architect rather than a developer. Sloppy journalism. Shoot me now.

Also, this is a column -- about the Valley, about my experiences in the Valley, one of more than 20 I've written thus far. This piece was neither an architecture story nor a real estate story. I was merely pointing out that there's some neat homes in Granada Hills.

And finally, though I won't bore y'all with a lengthy defense of my particular style of writing, I will say this: It's a good thing writers are not shackled by the rules of snooty writing teachers. If they were, the world would be a significantly duller place.

OK, got the HTML tags right this time.

Realtor 1
Realtor 2 w/ pictures

Thanks for the links, Michael. I wouldn't want to live in most of the Eichler homes you find around here, or the Ain homes in Mar Vista -- just not my style, and the Ains feel pretty small. But I enjoy seeing them and knowing the history, and I'm glad they are popular and being kept up.

snootily waves red pen in direction of E. Himmelsbach, and snorts

I wouldn't want to live in most of the Eichler homes you find around here, or the Ain homes in Mar Vista -- just not my style, and the Ains feel pretty small.

Not everyone agrees. (I originally typed "Well, fuck you then" but that was a little too harsh). Our Ain, a prototype for the Mar Vista homes, and with pretty much the same footprint as the tract, feels much larger than its 1000 sq ft. The open plan and the ambiguity between indoors and outdoors create the illusion of connection with the whole surrounding landscape--the space, though small by numbers, feels quite expansive.

The concept of the Ain Mar Vista home received deserved recognition by the Museum of Modern Art in 1950, where one was built in the courtyard there, as an exhibition home. It's a great floorplan, and A. Quincy Jones, who taught at USC in the 1950's (where he encountered Ain) riffed off it in the Eichler homes.

One thing I wish that would have happened: I wish that more developers would have responded to the acclaim and sensibility of the Ain home. Now these homes are merely fetishized; but at one time they were designed to be a highly aestheticized low-income housing solution, and Eichler followed up on that impulse, but few others did.

There are great pre-fab people working today, but they're really just re-inventing the wheel, cramming a lot of living into a little space. Everyone seems to thirst for space over design, and design gets pushed aside. Erik had it half right in this article (but only half); I always lament someone who knows something about architecture, someone who values good design, finding a space too "small" for taste.

The Ains I've knowingly been in left me feeling cold too. But to each his own, eh?

Houses can only go so far. It's generally people who leave you feeling cold.

Indeed.

"I was merely pointing out that there's some neat homes in Granada Hills."

It's a cheap shot, but what the hell...

"There are" some neat homes in Granada Hills, not "there is" some neat homes in Granada Hills.