Eichler homes

   I took the two pictures below a couple of weeks ago when I went to see a group of houses near my job that real estate developer Joseph Eichler had built. The one in the bottom picture, also close to my workplace, was taken about a year ago.
   Eichler's company, Eichler Homes, helped to make available for the general public modern architecture, and the properties designs express to me a hopefulness for the future. Of course, this is my only very personal opinion, but I find the horizontality of the buildings unassuming, aesthetically appealing and inviting, and even though there is much hidden from the person looking at the homes from the outside, I feel a sense of freedom from the unobtrusiveness of the buildings in their surroundings.
   The homes that were built were considered middle-class dwellings at the time, (mainly in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area), and were said to be the first homes to market and make available modernist dwellings to a wide range of people (i.e-not only the wealthy). Besides the homes being economically feasible to to many, Eichler refused to discriminate against anyone from buying them.
   Although the current real estate market, and me and my wife's financial situation in general, do not allow me to realistically dream of buying one of these homes, the fact that they are so available for me to see is refreshing and inspiring. It gives me some faith that the beauty made by humankind is not simply for those better off than me.