Surreal Suburbs | Kevin Gardiner

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August 13, 2017 by Kevin

Foster City Eichler floorplans

Eichler was one of several builders in the initial single family neighborhoods in Foster City. As shown in these field photos for Neighborhoods 1 and 2, and Neighborhoods 3 and 4, the neighborhoods had a deliberately eclectic mix of architectural styles; in order to lessen the sense of tract-house uniformity, the Fosters selected several builders to construct houses simultaneously, and mixed them together in the same neighborhoods. One of those builders was Eichler, which by this time had become renown for its unconventional architect-designed modernist homes.

Recently I came across a series of floorplans for Eichler homes in Foster City. Each identifies the architect of record for the plan. Contrary to popular belief, Joseph Eichler was not an architect; he was a developer with a vision and an affinity for modernist design, and he commissioned a variety of architects to bring that vision to market.

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April 27, 2017 by Kevin

Surreal Suburb: Bel Marin Keys

I discovered Bel Marin Keys on one of my regular drives up to Sonoma County, and instantly became entranced. This is one of the most extraordinary, offbeat places around, and I’d stop by whenever I had the opportunity. Despite being in Marin County, land of redwoods and hot tubs and mountain bikes, Bel Marin Keys has an altogether other-worldly presence. Approaching the community one passes through characteristic Marin woodsy scenery, but things soon change radically. The community was carved out of the wetlands starting in the early 1960s, with house styles evoking the latest design trends of the time. The community has a Florida-esque “keys” layout with houses lined along finger-like streets, interspersed with navigable waterways. Streets are lined with every kind of palm tree and have tropical names like “Bermuda Harbor” and “Montego Kay.”

Besides the striking aesthetics, two things really strike me about the place. First, the edges give way to vast expanses of flat marshland nothingness, creating an “edge of the earth” feeling, like you might just drop off by mistake. The second is the complete, utter silence… despite all the houses out there, there is no commercial activity and very little traffic, so it is quiet in a way I haven’t experienced in very many other neighborhoods.

Since I first published this page on my old website I have received some correspondence from Bel Marin Keys residents. They have been able to fill me in on some of the historical background. There are a total of 2200 acres of farmland that were converted in the development into a little over 700 homes, developed from the early 1960s to the late 1980s. The original developer, Jack West, dreamed of having a Caribbean like “feel” to the development, patterned on his extensive trips to that region (hence the Caribbean street names). He envisioned a larger community with a golf course and even a shopping center on an island in the middle of one of the lagoons, but this never came to be. The last phase of development was abandoned for environmental reasons, and is now owned by the California Conservation group. It is being converted back into wetlands for native birds.

There are five lagoons, all man-made, but the water in them comes from San Pablo Bay, and there is outlet to the larger San Francisco Bay and the ocean from all the homes in the area. Locks control access. The water is flushed regularly, to maintain its quality, and is also checked chemically. There are large fish in the lagoons, including bass. There are also lots of herons, owls, raptor birds, swans, pelicans and many other birds. There are even otters.

There also used to be horseback riding. A boating magazine article from the 1960s mentioned “miles of riding trails,” and that riding was one of the popular activities.

Many of the original residents purchasing in “The Keys” came from the military base across the wetland region called Hamilton Air Force Base. The base is no longer active, and has been developed for non-military use now, though some of the original hangers and an old airfield strip remain. Bel Marin Keys also attracted executives from San Francisco because of its vacation-like atmosphere. Today there is a mixture of well-established older residents (many of whom have children and grandchildren living in the area as well) combined with younger more affluent families whose children usually attend private schools out of the area.

Bel Marin Keys has its own Yacht Club, and it is a big part of the social life in the community. There are traditions such as “Santa on the Sea” where several volunteers dress up their boats with Christmas lights, deer, and other decorations and put on Santa costumes. About one week before Christmas they tour the lagoons on their boats and stop at docks handing out candy canes and such to the kids. There is also Icicle Day on January 1st on which day people can jump into the main lagoon (freezing cold!) and are rewarded with free chili and drinks. Finally, there is a 4th of July “Sailabration” involving a competition for the most well decorated and patriotic boat. They serve all kinds of good food and have all kinds of activities for both kids and adults, including a parade. Some of these traditions date back more than forty years.

I am particularly grateful for the historical information provided to me for this page, including images in the gallery below (click on the images for captions). As with the other pages on this website, if you have additional material to contribute, please send me an email!

The photos in this gallery come from a former resident who lived in a house on Montego Key in Bel Marin Keys from 1967 to 1974. Her husband kindly sent scans of the snapshots. Some of the photos have descriptions on the back; those are reprinted here as captions.

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October 5, 2014 by Kevin

“Unique” Oasis Park in Scottsdale, Arizona

When we were working on the Scottsdale Downtown Plan and renting an apartment in Downtown Scottsdale, we’d often drive down Thomas Road on our treks into Phoenix. On our way we’d pass by an unusual mobile home park featuring mobile homes flanked by permanently-built structures. After driving by countless times, we pulled over one day and took these photos. It’s called Oasis Park and features a fantastic array of mid-century architecture, both factory-built and site-built.

“Unique” is the word Oasis Park uses to describe itself on its website:

The word “unique” is one of the few in the English language that cannot be modified. There is no “very unique” or “a little unique” or “somewhat unique”. It stands alone. Above all else.

So, too, does Oasis Park. From the one-of-a-kind architecture of its homes to the perfect Scottsdale location to its welcoming residents, Oasis Park stands alone as that “unique” place to call home in the Valley of the Sun.

Reading up on the park on the website and other web articles, we learn that Oasis Park was created in the mid-1950s on nearly 15 acres in the midst of cotton fields. A drive-in theater sat across the road, long since replaced with office buildings. The first residents moved arrived in 1957 to find shuffleboard courts, a putting green, a 54-foot heated pool with a rock waterfall, a library inside the clubhouse, an on-site hobby shop for men, and a pink laundry room with matching pink washers and pink dryers. The amenities alone help set the park apart from other mobile home communities. Eventually 95 couples filled the park, maneuvering massive 55-foot mobile homes into their designated lots. Residents were required to add “ramadas” to the existing structures, and some opted to add more than what was required.

According to the reports, most residents were (and still are) winter visitors, maintaining homes elsewhere. Though originally a rental community, residents now own their homes and are shareholders in the Oasis Park Company, the corporation they formed in order to buy the land on which their homes sit. Each resident now 1/95th of the total land and decisions about the park must be approved by the majority.

The community was always intended for older couples whose children were grown, restricted to members 55 years old and older. At one time, Oasis Park would not let in widows; however, many of the homes are now occupied by single women. Prospective buyers are interviewed and must be approved by the Oasis Park membership.

The original mobile home is still part of the structure, as a rule, but each home has a uniqueness of its own. This comes both from the mobile home and the ramada structures, which create interesting compositions. In some examples the original mobile home is a distinctive element unto itself, whereas others are so fully integrated to be nearly indistinguishable from the rest of the structure.

I’m not sure which aspect of these structures I like best. Many (maybe even most) of the mobile homes are midcentury vintage, with cool styling that has come full circle to be very hip. But then the ramadas themselves are pretty great too. The two together are like nothing I’d seen before.

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August 14, 2014 by Kevin

Surreal Suburb: Westlake in Daly City

Next in line from the Surreal Suburbs archives. This was a series I put together back in 2005 featuring notable and oddball midcentury suburban communities in the Bay Area. Earlier I recapped the iconic Eichler Fairmeadows subdivision in Palo Alto; here we go back to Westlake in Daly City.

Westlake in Daly City, California: Your House is Your Castle

The vast subdivision of Westlake in Daly City offers a striking example of post-World War II design with a particularly kitchy 1950’s touch.

The place was built by Henry Doelger, who had earlier built the vast Sunset District in San Francisco. The Sunset District itself has a surreal suburban charm, with exceedingly (some would say overly) cute Tudor, Spanish, French Provincial and Colonial architecture along with horrifyingly banal stucco boxes, depending on the block and phase of development. But Westlake took the prototype a step further towards the suburbs. Unlike the Sunset District, where each house is attached to its neighbor in a rowhouse pattern, the Westlake houses are all detached. Also significantly, each Westlake house sits behind a neatly kept lawn, which is required to be maintained into perpetuity by the community’s CC&R’s.

Extending from the San Francisco city limits south to the sprawling Serramonte Shopping Center, and from the Pacific bluffs to Interstate 280, Westlake forms the major part of Daly City. It coherently obeys the “neighborhood unit” principles that were coming into vogue at the time, with each residential unit having an elementary school at its center, and no through traffic. There is an articulated recreational open space system, and a town center complex of shopping, community, and high school facilities just as the textbook said it should.

The town center district, built in phases between 1950 and 1960, provides a particularly good example of the transitional form between downtown-style strip commercial development and the later enclosed shopping mall prototype. There is a shopping center with big parking lots, but there are some mixed-use commercial buildings facing some of the side streets that still exhibit a downtown character. The blocks surrounding the shopping center consist of well-maintained garden apartments with fussy Colonial styling.

One of the social centers of Westlake is the Westlake Joe’s restaurant on John Daly Boulevard. Stop by this place at 5:30 PM and everything starts to make sense: Westlake is the place that the San Francisco middle class fled to in the 1950’s as it abandoned the old Victorian neighborhoods. Those same folks, now getting on in their years, fill the tables at Westlake Joe’s for early suppers (you won’t be able to get a table at 6:00). The food is marginal, but that’s not important. This is a social scene of unmistakable comraderie.

Touring the neighborhoods, there is a mixture of French Provincial, Colonial, and Moderne architecture. The 50’s modern ranch style is perhaps the most characteristic, however, and with today’s styles it has gained a renewed hip appeal. Meticulously trimmed lawns and wildly shaped succulent plantings just add more to the visual.

Since this write-up was originally put together, a really great book on Westlake was released titled Little Boxes: The Architecture of a Classic Midcentury Suburb by author Rob Keil, and more recently a 44-minute documentary was released. Worth checking out!

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April 12, 2014 by Kevin

Surreal Suburb: Fairmeadows in Palo Alto

In 2005 I created a small website called “Surreal Suburbs of the Bay Area.” I’d been inspired by a book I’d read by Paul Lisicky called Famous Builder in which he describes a curious, unfinished subdivision he had visited as a kid. It made me think about the intriguing subdivisions and neighborhoods I’d visited – not necessarily unfinished, but unusual and oddly appealing for representing a distinctive approach to urbanism.

When I first published the pages, I got a mix of correspondence from people who lived in the various communities. Some enjoyed the site, but others thought I was making fun of the places and were angry with me. Maybe the term “surreal” gave the wrong impression. But in any case, I’ll go on record as saying I like all the places I’ve chosen to profile; no hipster irony here.

The intro from “Surreal Suburbs of the Bay Area”:

What is a Surreal Suburb? Maybe it’s one of those things that you simply know it when you see it. I wanted to create a site that looks at those quirky, idiosyncratic suburban places that somehow stick in your mind through their odd characteristics and uniqueness. They have an almost other-worldy quality thay makes them feel… surreal.

A Surreal Suburb is not necessarily an entire city — in fact, it’s more likely to be a single large subdivision, rather than an entire suburb. These places stick out because they represent strong, individualistic visions on the part of their creators, and are significantly different from their more conventional suburban contexts. Some are experiements or dreams gone awry, representing a particular philisophical trend or interest.

Most (but not all) of the Surreal Suburbs in this first round of surveys date from the 1950’s, ’60’s, and ’70’s. The period is a common reference point, representing a “new frontier” attitude towards suburban living. Some of these examples represent this attitude carried to an extreme. Being of that time period is not a prerequisite of being judged a Surreal Suburb, however, and over time suburban developments from earlier and more recent times will likely be added to this survey.

So with that as an introduction, here is the profile of the first “Surreal Suburb” I profiled:

Fairmeadows in Palo Alto, California – Eichler Homes’ loopiest neighborhood

Looking at an aerial photo or street map of Palo Alto, the eye is immediately drawn to a curious group of curvilinear streets in the south end of town. This is “Fairmeadows,” one of two Eichler Homes neighborhoods built in the 1950’s in Palo Alto, and one of many in the area. But this is the only one with the funky, memorable street layout. This in itself probably makes it one of be Eichler’s most photographed works.

On the ground the street layout loses its impact somewhat. It’s not to say that it’s impreceivable, but more that it turns out not to be as big a deal as one might have expected. The streets do indeed go round and round in a sort of dizzying and disorienting way, but if one hadn’t seen the street map beforehand, it’s unclear whether the concept would be apprarent. This may be why the fad for cocentric street layouts, seen elsewhere in the 50’s in 60’s in places like Sun City, Arizona, was short-lived. But no matter — here, it gives an extra touch to what is already a distinctively surreal 1950’s high-design suburban development model.

About Eichler Homes

For those who aren’t familiar with Eichler Homes, “Eichlers” (as they’re known locally) are mod-style tract houses built in the 1950’s and 60’s by developer Joseph Eichler. Inspired by his tenancy in a rented Frank Lloyd Wright house in Hillsborough, Joseph Eichler set out on a mission of bringing high-design contemporary architecture to the masses. Eichler Homes, Inc. built nearly 11,000 single-family homes in California, as well as a few odd examples in other states.

Beginning in 1949, when it was still uncommon to find merchant builders engaged with architects, Eichler became engrossed with building communities of homes characterized by both flair and affordability. Aligning himself with a stable of progressive, empathic architects – first the San Francisco firm of Anshen & Allen, then Jones & Emmons, later Claude Oakland – Eichler realized his dream, styled with imagination. As regional architecture designed for the Bay Area’s benign climate, their house designs befuddled the traditional masses – emphasizing boldness, change, and optimism through indoor-outdoor living, walls of glass, atriums, and radiant-heat floors.

A strong proponent of fair housing and deeply opposed to racial discrimination, the liberal Eichler was the first large tract builder to sell to minorities, and even built a home on his own lot for an NAACP leader. Joe resigned from the National Association of Home Builders in 1958 in protest of racial discrimination policies and, according to reports from long-time Eichler owners, offered to buy back homes from those who had trouble accepting their neighbors.

Eichler Homes now have a cult following. Some cities such as Palo Alto even have special design guidelines for Eichler neighborhoods to ensure that improvement projects do not diminish the architectural character. The Eichler Network web site is a great place to learn more about Eichlers.