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Located in the oak-studded foothills near Portola Valley, Ladera is defined by its hills, winding roads and wooded setting — terrain that shaped some of Joseph Eichler’s rarest homes. Here, Eichler experimented with more expansive designs tailored to a sloping, rural landscape, including a handful of custom two-story and split-level homes, an uncommon departure from his typical single-story houses.
Though Eichler would go on to build thousands of homes across Northern and Southern California, the small “Ladera Project” remains a significant chapter in his legacy. It was in this hillside enclave that many of the concepts defining the Eichler aesthetic were first tested, helping shape the broader story of midcentury modern residential design in California.
Before those homes appeared, the unincorporated community was envisioned in the late 1940s as a 400-home cooperative housing tract developed by the Peninsula Housing Association, with designs by architects John Funk and Joe Allen Stein. That plan never materialized. By 1951, the site was reimagined as a new kind of residential development that marked a turning point for Eichler and his collaborators.
That same year, Eichler began working with the architectural firm Jones & Emmons, according to the Eichler Network. Their collaboration helped define the post-and-beam, indoor-outdoor aesthetic — often centered around open-air atriums — now synonymous with Eichler homes.
Ladera was the first project Eichler and Jones & Emmons worked on together and became an early testing ground for adapting modernist design to sloping terrain. Unlike Eichler’s more uniform suburban tracts, the hillside setting required a departure from flat, single-level layouts. Of the roughly 24 Eichlers built in Ladera, about half are split-level or two-story homes, each tailored to its site rather than a standardized grid. The homes also emphasized indoor-outdoor living on larger-than-average lots, often a quarter-acre or more, based on historical records and listings, allowing for greater privacy, landscaping and outdoor amenities.
Built primarily along Aliso Way and La Mesa Drive, the homes were marketed as “a small group of large and luxurious homes.” More expansive than many early Eichlers, they featured custom or semi-custom designs and were priced between $29,500 and $34,500, according to ads announcing the project’s grand opening that appeared in the Peninsula Times Tribune in the early 1950s. The homes were designed to “provide extensive level areas for outdoor living and to capture the delightful views of the countryside,” with lots large enough to accommodate swimming pools.
Architecturally, Ladera Eichlers often include entry atriums and generous square footage. One home was described in a 1955 ad in the Peninsula Times Tribune as having a tropical garden extending through its center, with a foyer featuring a ceiling-height philodendron set against a driftwood log. Built-in appliances reflected the integrated design philosophy of the era.
In contrast to larger Eichler neighborhoods with repeating floor plans, Ladera’s small scale and early, experimental designs set it apart as a distinct chapter in Eichler’s work.
