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 . Joseph Eichler , the founder , insisted on modernist style and used only designs by architects , initially Anshen and Allen and later also Jones and Emmons . The company specialized in constructing these houses cheaply enough to be an affordable alternative to more conventional tract houses . The vast majority were of timber , using post and beam construction . Eichler had however commissioned a steel-frame house from Raphael Soriano in 1955 ; this was built in Palo Alto to demonstrate the practicality and cost-worthiness of building tract houses in steel rather than wood , was smaller than the X-100 , and came in at a cost of $ 7 per square foot , according to Eichler comparable to that of a timber house . Jones had also designed a steel-frame house for the " Research Village " project sponsored by U.S. Gypsum in Barrington , Illinois , and another in 1954 as his personal residence in Crestwood Hills , Los Angeles ( destroyed in the 1961 Bel Air Fire )
Bel Air Fire
Bel Air Fire
X-100 (house)