The Eames House

The Eames House, Case Study House #8, was one of roughly two dozen homes built as part of The Case Study House Program. John Entenza, the editor and owner of Arts & Architecture magazine, spearheaded the program in the mid-1940s until its end in the mid-1960s. The Eames House, or Case Study House #8, was designed by Charles and Ray Eames to serve as their primary residence and secondary work studio. The house’s initial design, the “Bridge House,” was introduced alongside seven other Case Study Program homes in the January 1945 issue of Arts & Architecture magazine. After material shortages and a heavy reconfiguration of the plan, the Eameses constructed their double-story, two-structure home in 1949.

The Case Study Houses were to be build and furnished using materials and techniques derived from the experiences of WWII. Each home would be specific in its intention for either a real or hypothetical client, considering various housing needs and scenarios of the era. Case Study House #8 proposed a house for a married couple working in design and graphic arts whose children no longer lived at home.

The house is a living laboratory of the Eameses’ ideas and creativity, illuminating their approaches to life and work in a multi-layered, visceral manner. The Eameses nestled this iconic piece of architecture in an idyllic setting overlooking the Pacific Ocean just north of Santa Monica, sided by an expansive meadow of eucalyptus trees. Its materials, interior collections, and landscaping are maintained as they were during Charles and Ray’s lifetimes; all three elements tell the story of the couple’s life and work.

The house and its 1.4-acre site were formally declared a National Historic Landmark on the day that would have been Charles’s 100th birthday: June 17th, 2007.