populuxe

I just read this amazing book by Rob Keil. It is called Little Boxes, The Architecture of a Classic Mid Century Suburb.

It is about the suburb of San Francisco called Westlake. It has been compared to Levittown NY, one of the first major postwar suburbs in the USA. Westlake is a fantastic example of 1950s post-war architecture.

More after the jump

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The city was built by Henry Doelger who at the time was only 38 and America's largest home builder. He constructed much of San Francisco's Sunset district. He was an interesting guy, he wore a different toupee each day, had pet monkeys and built a swimming pool in his living room!

Henry Doelger

Doelger and his family lived in this house, his children went to public school in Westlake.

Westlake was a meticulously planned "city within a city" which included 7500 houses of different sizes, 3000 apartments, schools, shopping centers, offices, medical facilities, churches and parks.

Chester Dolphin was the architect and Ed Hageman was the architectural designer behind the design of Westlake. They designed several dozen basic floor plans to create varying house styles at a low cost post-war families could afford.

The schools were designed by architect Mario Ciampi. They won many awards from the AIA and were featured in Life magazine.

All photos courtesy of Little Boxes

The author of Little Boxes has lived in and around Westlake his entire life. Rob's work has included creating advertising campaigns, brochures and websites for serveral of America's largest home builders. He designed and wrote the Westlake section of the official historical website DalyCityHistory.org. He wrote and photographed the article about Westlake that appeared in the Fall 2005 issue of Atomic Ranch magazine. He has also been interviewed and quoted on Westlake for several articles in the San Francisco Examiner and The San Francisco Chronicle.

LITTLE BOXES by Rob Keil (2006)
$35.00