A mid-century floor plan can tell you a lot before you ever step inside. In a post-and-beam house, the plan shows where the glass walls face, which rooms share a view of the yard, where the private wing begins and which parts are easy or hard to change. Reading it before you walk in lets you spend the tour checking what matters.
This guide explains what to look for, using the National Register nominations for Eichler tracts in Palo Alto and San Jose, Palo Alto's Eichler design guidelines and Caltrans' statewide study of postwar tract housing. Our Eichler floor plans page has examples to practice on.
Step 1: Find the original plan
Tract moderns were built from models, so there is often an original plan to compare against.
Model numbers. Original plans and sales brochures carry them. The Greenmeadow nomination attaches Jones & Emmons plans JE-14 through JE-19 taken from an original Eichler sales brochure, and the draft Fairglen Additions nomination in San Jose identifies thirteen models built there, from SJ-E31 to SJ-1504, even though the tract's sales brochures show nine.
Our plan collections. Our pages group Eichler plans by architect: Anshen & Allen floor plans, Jones & Emmons floor plans and Claude Oakland floor plans.
Archives and permits. UC Berkeley's Environmental Design Archives holds Eichler project records, and the draft San Jose National Register documentation cites a 1960 drawing set for Fairglen model SJ-4 there. Your city's building department may have permit drawings for later changes.
Keep the original and the current marketing plan side by side. Every difference is a question for the tour.
Step 2: Find the zones
Eichler plans separate active rooms from sleeping rooms. Describing the one original Greenmeadow house its surveyors inspected inside, the nomination says it "separates the traffic of the active living areas from that of the passive sleeping areas," and it credits A. Quincy Jones with clearly zoned public and private areas. On a plan, look for:
The living zone: an open living and dining room plus a kitchen and multi-purpose room, which Palo Alto's guidelines describe as typical. These rooms usually connect directly to the rear yard.
The kitchen as hinge: in that Greenmeadow house, a galley kitchen is the pivot of the living spaces, separated from the living room by a screen wall about six feet high, with an all-purpose room on its other side giving access to the garage.
The bedroom wing: typically three to four bedrooms in Palo Alto. In the same Greenmeadow house, the wing holds three bedrooms and two baths, with the master suite extending past the living room's glass line to share the view.
The second bath: the Fairglen nomination says the master suite with its own bath was introduced by Eichler at Fairmeadow in Palo Alto in 1953. Several Fairglen models give the other bath a door straight to the outside.
Early plans used lighter dividers. At Green Gables (1950), a head-high storage partition with fluted obscure glass separated the living area from the bedroom hallway without reaching the ceiling, and a pass-through "snack bar" joined the kitchen to the dining area.
Step 3: Read the shape
The outline of the plan tells you where the outdoor rooms are.
T-shaped: Anshen & Allen's 1950 AA-1 prototype and Jones & Emmons' T-shaped plan types at Greenmeadow. The Greenmeadow nomination says the T separated the bedroom and living volumes and defined several outdoor spaces, including a court off the kitchen.
L-shaped: a front courtyard sits in the corner between the garage and the living wing, as in Fairglen's courtyard models.
Square with a center: the house wraps an atrium; in Fairglen's atrium models it sits between the garage and the bedroom wing.
U-shaped: Palo Alto's guidelines describe plans wrapped around a rear patio or a front carport or courtyard entry.
See our atrium living page for how the open center works in daily life.
Step 4: Read the glass and the sun
On the plan, look for the long runs of glass. In a typical Eichler, they line the back of the house and face the atrium or courtyard, while the street side shows only small windows. The Greenmeadow nomination describes floor-to-ceiling glass and a sliding door that usually extend the full width of the rear.
Then find the north arrow or the street. Caltrans' study cites Edward Eichler's observation that the glass made the houses hard to keep cool in summer, particularly when the glazed rear walls faced south or west. The Greenmeadow nomination also says Eichler's designers oriented each house to the sun as well as its lot allowed, so the same model can face different directions on the same street. Ask which way the rear wall faces and what shades it. Our indoor-outdoor living page shows how the glass connects rooms to the yard.
Step 5: Read the structure and the slab
The plan also hints at what is easy to change.
The grid. The Greenmeadow nomination says Anshen & Allen planned buildings on a four-foot module and standardized components into a kit of parts, which let one basic plan produce several variations.
Posts and beams. Caltrans' study says post-and-beam framing placed posts as much as eight or ten feet apart, with beams spanning more than twice that distance, and filled the spaces between with glass or non-structural panels. Palo Alto's guidelines say Eichler's architects chose the system partly for its flexibility in arranging interior spaces. The nominations note beam direction model by model; at Greenmeadow, for example, all beams in several models run front to back.
What's in the slab. Palo Alto's guidelines note that the original plumbing and radiant heating were placed in the concrete slab and may be hard to repair without invasive work. Moving a kitchen or bathroom means dealing with that slab.
What's not overhead. Eichler roofs have no attics, according to the Greenmeadow nomination, so new ducts and wiring need a plan of their own.
The mechanical room. At Greenmeadow, one model puts a heater room beside the garage behind a door camouflaged with siding. Find the equivalent on your plan.
Our post and beam construction page explains the system in more depth. Before you plan to remove or move any wall, have a structural engineer and a licensed contractor review it.
Step 6: Compare the plan with the house
Bring a short list to the tour:
Is the atrium or courtyard still open, or has it been roofed or enclosed?
Was the carport or garage converted to living space?
Do added rooms show up on the city's permit history?
Are the rear glass walls continuous, or have openings been filled in or divided?
Where does the house face, and what shades the glass?
For how to tell an original Eichler from a look-alike, see our page on the difference between an Eichler and mid-century modern.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find the original floor plan for an Eichler?
Start with the model number from a sales brochure, a previous listing or the seller's records, then compare it with plan collections like ours. UC Berkeley's Environmental Design Archives holds Eichler project records, and your city's building department may have permit drawings for later work.
How big were original Eichlers?
It varied by tract and model. The Green Gables nomination says living space averaged 1,100 square feet there in 1950, and the Greenmeadow nomination says homes averaged 1,600 square feet a few years later.
Can I move the kitchen in a mid-century house?
Possibly, but plan for the slab. Palo Alto's guidelines note that Eichlers' original plumbing and radiant heating were placed in the concrete slab, so moving fixtures can mean cutting concrete. Get a contractor's assessment before you count on a new layout.
Are interior walls in a post-and-beam house structural?
Some may be and some may not; the posts and beams carry the roof, and the spaces between them are filled with glass or non-structural panels. Only a structural engineer can tell you for a specific house.
Related reading
Eichler Atrium Models vs. Courtyard and Gallery Plans Explained
Mid-Century Tract Homes vs. Custom Moderns: What Buyers Should Know
More guides on this topic: Mid-Century Modern Architecture & Design
Have a plan you'd like a second set of eyes on before a tour? Call or text the Boyenga Team at Compass at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or contact the Boyenga Team and we'll go through it with you.
