The Eichler X-100 is one of the most important experimental homes in the history of California modernism — a rare steel-framed prototype designed by A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons for Joseph Eichler in the San Mateo Highlands. Built in 1956 as Eichler’s “house of tomorrow,” the X-100 pushed mid-century residential design into the future with exposed steel structure, walls of glass, open-plan living, indoor-outdoor flow, and a level of architectural ambition that still feels remarkably forward-thinking today.
Unlike a traditional post-and-beam Eichler, the X-100 was engineered with steel columns and beams, allowing for a flexible floor plan with no interior load-bearing walls. That structural freedom created a dramatic sense of openness, with living spaces that flow around a central kitchen and connect effortlessly to gardens, atriums, patios, and the surrounding landscape.
More than just a home, the X-100 is a design time capsule — a visionary experiment in modern materials, efficient living, natural
