My trip to steel wonderland inevitably brings me to the U.S. and its numerous modernist architects who had a huge influence on post-war American housing.
Archibald Quincy Jones (born April 29, 1913 ) was a Los Angeles-based architect known for innovative buildings in the modernist style and for urban planning that pioneered the use of greenbelts and green design. Jones also participated in John Entenza’s Case Study House program. Jones is credited with over 5,000 built projects, many of them the kind of indoor-outdoor-homes for the middle class that have come to define California modernism.
The Eichler X-100
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.
Eichler Homes was founded as a developer of tracts of single-family houses in the Bay Area suburbs during the California building boom that followed World War II. Joe Eichler, the founder, insisted on modernist style and used only designs by architects.
Eichler saw the X-100 as the vehicle that could raise the awareness of steel-framed housing and perhaps revolutionize residential construction. Its name may have been derived from the X-15, a manned space project of the era. The house structure was pre-fabricated, with advice from Pierre Koenig, a Los Angeles architect with considerable experience building in steel. The steel frame allowed the architect to eliminate the need for load bearing walls.
The X-100 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in June 2016. It is in perfect shape, thanks to the Eichler Network and its director Marty Arbunich, who restored the house and lives in it.
The house is brilliant in its simplicity, and it proves that steel-framed housing can be damn sexy!
If you want to know more about the X-100, check this link
About the Author:
Bruno Dursin – Managing Director at Believe in Steel. Bruno has more than 30 years of experience in promoting steel & steel solutions. His clients benefit from his extensive network within the building industry.
