Story - The American Housing Guild and Mid-Century Modern “Housing Tracts”
Curation by Keith York
Photograph by Julius Shulman. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10)
While housing tracts, or large-scale developments have historically provided housing in times of significant demand, their reputation can be unfortunately tarnished in some circles. While they have become commonplace, decades ago tract housing was still a relatively new idea as lenders, land developers, construction companies, materials suppliers and designers flexed significant muscle across the landscape. Less known are the unique designs peppered into those larger developments by progressive architects pushing the envelope of indoor-outdoor living experiences leveraging our temperate climate.
Photographs by Julius Shulman. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10)
In recent years, the neighborhoods by developer Joseph Eichler have gained favor among homebuyers searching for style. To be clear, there are no Eichler tracts in San Diego County, but there are equally as interesting and livable spaces to call home.
Here in San Diego, architects Homer Delawie, Frederick Earl Emmons, Edward Fickett, Henry Hester, Robert Jones, A. Quincy Jones, William Krisel, and Dan Palmer among others sold their designs to developers like Eichler – like Leonard Drogin and Irvin Kahn for example. These developers would often buy a variety of models from the architect (such as Plan A, B, or C or 1,2 and 3 and so on. These, often variations on a theme, worked well in neighborhoods by rotating the facades – such as swapping the bedroom wing from the left to the right, and offering different materials (brick, plywood siding and stucco) -- to make a residential housing tract appear to be comprised of variety and uniqueness.
Photograph by Julius Shulman. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10)
Among the most captivating and numerous examples of strong Post-War designs in tract housing were by the designs by the firms Hester & Jones and Palmer & Krisel for developers American Housing Guild and Irvin Kahn. While Kahn was a housing tract magnate, Martin Gleich’s American Housing Guild went one step further – offering mortgages to homebuyers to for the purchase of their new home developments.
Between 1991-1962, architects Henry Hester and Robert Jones (as Hester, Jones & Associates) sold three design variants of their wood and glass post ‘n’ beam homes to American Housing Guild and shortly thereafter the ‘Subdivision House’ was awarded for its design by the San Diego Chapter of the AIA. These homes can be found in San Carlos (on Ballinger Avenue among other streets), Lake Murray (on Lake Alturas), La Mesa (on Set Hall Street for example), in Clairemont (Abernathy Way), and Linda Vista (on Chasewood, Aldford, and Erith) as well as Serra Mesa / Mission Village (Ainsley Road). Consider driving through these neighborhoods and spotting the strongest, intact examples.
Photographs by Julius Shulman. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10)
At this same time the firm of Palmer & Krisel A.I.A. Architects and Engineers worked with developers Irvin Kahn and Leonard Drogin to populate the San Diego region with their wood, glass and stucco modern designs. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a number of homes were built including College Area (on Baja Drive, Baja Court and Chaparral Way), La Jolla Crest, La Jolla Scenic Heights, Pacifica (Pacifica Drive, San Aquario Drive, San Joaquin Drive and Loring Streets in Pacific Beach), University City (see examples on Stresemann, Lamas, Gobat, Lord Cecil, Award Row, Sandburg Avenue, Quidde Avenue and Dalen Avenue), and Viewpoint North (La Jolla Scenic Drive North, Sugarman, Kilbourn and Cranbrook streets) as well as Viewpoint South developments.
Note: Homes in these neighborhoods do come up for sale ever so often. If you’d like us to locate a purchase opportunity for you, please feel free to reach out.