Grandest Eichler of All

By Marty Arbunich

Ever since my first visit to the legendary X-100 steel Eichler, in 1995, I get goosebumps each time I enter the San Mateo Highlands. There's something about that house's irresistible persona, punctuated by its impenetrable metal fabric and distinguished role as the great Eichler experiment, that continues to haunt me. If I don't strain my neck to steal a peek of its backyard from the freeway off-ramp, I usually cruise by the front door to raise my heartbeat with a longing glimpse.

That same heart nearly gave out recently when I discovered a dozen unpublished color images of the X-100, buried for more than 40 years in photographer Ernie Braun's wonderful Eichler archive. As you can see for yourself here, Braun and the X-100 were a beautiful combination.

If you comb the Highlands today searching for the X-100, its identity likely will be concealed by the bountiful shrubs that camouflage the metallic beams poking out from its olive-green façade. Over the years, much of its flora has mushroomed, the exterior paneling and paint offer a slightly different effect, and the original fireplace and a handful of appliances have faded. But on the inside of the Arcadia sliding front door, the X-100 still looks very much like it did in its 1950s heyday, and exudes much of the same feeling found in Braun's long-lost photographs.

The X-100's preservation should be credited to Anna-Lise Pedersen, the home's loving owner since 1964, who continues to take great pride in faithfully maintaining its authentic and healthy appearance. "You can't call what I did remodeling," she says modestly. "Replace-
ment, yes."

Ms. Pedersen is less modest, however, about our selection of the X-100 as the "Eichler of the Century." I suspect it has something to do with her own four-decade case of goosebumps.

Visit Marty's earlier feature article on the X-100

EICHLER X-100
Discover Eichler's San Mateo 'X-100' house of steel
-- the Eichler of the century, design for the ages

From the pages of the Eichler Network Directory
By Suzan Lindstrom

As we look back over the 20th century and the nearly 11,000 single-family dwellings built by Eichler Homes and its contingent of architects, one house stands out from the rest -- the X-100. It was recently nominated for designation to the National Register of Historic Places.

Sounding more like a title from a sci-fi movie, the X-100 was designed in 1955 and opened to the public in October 1956. Its name, however, may have been derived from the X-15, a manned-space project, actually a precursor to the space shuttle, that explored ballistic flight and winged reentry, starting in 1954.

The X-100 had another similarity to the X-15, in that it was also an experimental craft, in a sense. However, it was built on a then-remote street in the rolling hills of San Mateo to explore the possibility of rigid steel homebuilding and design concepts that incorporated revolutionary twists on existing methods, products, and materials.

The grand-opening brochure for the X-100 called it "an exciting exploration into future living." And a "Wall Street Journal" article touted, "The thousands of Californians who crowded into this 'home of tomorrow' this week gaped at such innovations as a revolving fireplace, one entire wall of glass, a plastic skylight like a bomber bubble, two indoor gardens, electrically operated sliding doors that replace all windows, and steel-frame construction to eliminate the need for load bearing walls."

This one-of-a-kind show home was never meant to be a production house. Instead, it had a two-fold purpose. First, the X-100 served as a promotional tool.

"It was a subdivision we were having trouble marketing because of its location, which was hard to reach by the old two-lane Skyline Highway," claimed Edward 'Ned' Eichler, who at the time was only two years out of the Army and already serving as marketing manager to his father Joe's homebuilding business. "That's when I learned the difference between a pretty location, which this was, and a convenient location."

But the X-100 turned out to be a promotional bonanza. Articles filled local newspapers, and pictorials, some in full color, appeared in national magazines like "Sunset," "Living for Young Homemakers," and "Arts & Architecture." The X-100 was said to have attracted over 150,000 visitors to the 700-house Highlands development over time, as colorful signs along the roadway beckoned potential buyers to not only take a peek at the experimental home, but also stop by the three conventional Eichler models alongside.

The second reason Ned Eichler gave for building the X-100 was a little more romantic -- that perhaps something new might develop out of this steel wonder which would prove useful for the homebuilding industry. "This was a time when there was a lot of talk about technology making revolutionary changes in homebuilding," stated Eichler, who admitted he and his father were skeptical, but they decided to give it a try anyway.

"I thought we could get all those manufacturers who were hanging around our business trying to get us to use their products, and talk to them about a place to try out their advanced prototypes that weren't in production yet," he explained.

So they ended up stocking the X-100 with appliances like Waste King's super-hush pulverator (garbage disposal), a jet-black automatic dishwasher that was said to contain a "new component" with five years of research behind it, and a handy-dandy NuTone five-in-one motor unit, built directly into the countertop, for grinding, mixing, blending, sharpening, or making juice at the touch of a button.

The test house also sported innovative rooftop spotlights that shone into rooms through skylights, eliminating the need for interior lamps; reversible kitchen cabinet doors (white on one side, yellow on the other) for color scheme changes; and finally, the pièce de résistance, an 8x4-foot Formica table in the kitchen that parted in the middle to reveal two-burners for keeping food toasty warm during family gatherings.

But beyond all this fluff was the structure itself. "Our architect, A. Quincy Jones, was the one who wanted to give steel another try," stated Ned Eichler. The X-100 was actually among the last of a series of five steel homes designed (using both light- and heavy-gauge steel) by the renowned Southern California architectural firm of Jones & Emmons, who was also responsible for such buildings as the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communications and the U.S. Embassy in Singapore.

The X-100 was the only steel-framed house the firm designed for Eichler Homes, although, in 1954, Eichler was a teammate builder along with Jones & Emmons on another steel house project at U.S. Gypsum's Research Village in Barrington, Illinois. Then in 1955, Eichler Homes constructed the All-Steel Builders Home, designed by Raphael Soriano, another well-known architect from the modernist school. Located in Palo Alto, the All-Steel seemed to lack the innovations of its San Mateo sister-structure.

In explaining the purpose of the jet-age X-100, Elaine K. Sewell Jones, wife of Quincy Jones, who passed away in 1979, stated, "Architects don't have a scientific laboratory, so experimental houses give them the ability to work with a blank page, and not simply edit someone else's work." On Quincy Jones' drawing board for the X-100 lay the sketch of a straight-edged ultra-modern home that employed the latest technology and yet had the heart of a people-friendly environment.

It's a space that Danish-born Anna-Lise Pedersen has enjoyed ever since her employer and good friend, Jesper Petersen, and his wife became the X-100's original owners. On move-in day, in April 1957, they walked into the empty house, devoid of the Herman Miller furniture that had once graced it as a showroom, and saw 2,310 square feet of open space with cinnamon-colored exposed steel beams topped by a corrugated roof.

Pedersen, who briefly lived with the Petersens before moving into her own wood-framed Eichler two doors away, recalls commenting to the Petersens about their new home, "It looks like a barn," and questioning, "Did we do the right thing?" Now, 44 years later, Pedersen's answer is an affirmative, as she thinks about the house that she later purchased from the Petersens in 1964, and since has kept almost pristine to its original design.

"It's all one big paradise," Pedersen said, her face lighting up as she guided me from room to room. She talked about spending her days pruning trees and plants in the interior gardens adjacent to the living rooms, showed me through the sunken shower/tub with a 32-foot Wascolite skylight overhead that allows for bathing by moonlight, and pointed out the 56-foot wall of Arcadia sliding glass doors that act as an invisible barrier to deer grazing in the nature preserve behind the house.

"Quincy Jones was especially ambitious in rethinking internal planning in the X-100," stated architect and Eichler historian Paul Adamson, as he reviewed the conceptual qualities of the house. Unlike the exterior atriums that Eichler homes are known for, the X-100's inside foliage allowed Jones to play with the idea of a garden for all climates, that could be built anywhere in the country.

Jones made the kitchen "the center of the house," acknowledging the more casual lifestyle of the late-'50s rather than isolating it off by walls as in previous generations. And he placed main living areas - the three bedrooms, two living rooms, and kitchen -- around the perimeter of the house to take advantage of outside space, light, and flow.

Just as the X-15 pioneered the space shuttle of today, what future did the X-100 foretell? Although Ned Eichler shared that he didn't think anything revolutionary came out of the test home other than the great pleasure it has given its homeowners, perhaps it did foreshadow a booming future in steel homebuilding.

An "Arts & Architecture" article in July 1956 stated, "One reason for Eichler building the home is because he thought organic building materials would be in short supply 'because we can't grow them fast enough.'"

This has turned out to be true, as Mike Goodman, the owner of Innovative Steel Systems, a company that is presently working on seven steel-framed housing developments around the Bay Area, explained. "I changed my business from a wood-framing company to steel five years ago because of the high fluctuation of lumber prices, between $210 to $400 per 1,000-board foot." Accurate to Joe Eichler's prediction, older trees are running out, and the demand for quality wood is increasing as lumber companies are harvesting "fast growth" varieties, which are less dense.

In the steel-framing industry itself, although some builders are still using heavy-gauge steel as in the X-100, most of the action is in the light-gauge arena. The American Iron and Steel Institute formed a committee in 1998, called the North American Steel Framing Alliance, to rapidly accelerate the use of light-gauge steel framing in residential construction. NASFA also spends it's time extolling the virtues of steel: a use of recyclable materials; high strength-to-weight ratio; it won't rot, warp, split, or crack; it's non-flammable; and doesn't provide meals for termites. The organization's present goal is a 25-percent market share by 2004.

Who knows what the future will hold? But as for the past, the X-100 is the Eichler Network's selection as Eichler Home of the Century - for its unique attributes, lasting pleasure, and innovative lead into the 21st century.

(Since this article was first published, two changes to the X-100 have occurred. Longtime owner Anna-Lise Pedersen sadly passed away in January 2003. Shortly afterwards, in July 2003, the X-100 was sold to a preservation-minded group, including Eichler Network director Marty Arbunich, preservationist Adriene Biondo, and film director John Eng. Eng and Biondo own an Eichler together in Granada hills, in Southern California. The new owners plan to restore the X-100 and convert it into an exhibition house.)

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