City of Sunnyvale

Hello, my name is Lillian Pang, of Sunnyvale, California, welcome to my home, welcome to an Eichler home. Joseph Eichler, a merchant and developer, built modern affordable homes after World War II. The Pangs chose this home through brochures sent home to Honolulu, Hawaii by Mr. Pang who had accepted a job at Llenkurt Electric in San Carlos. By June 1960, the Pang family of five children, ranging in ages of 17 to 6 years old arrived in Sunnyvale to 1114 Hollenbeck Avenue, a brand new home reminding us of indoor and outdoor living.

It's a 4 bedroom house, featuring an atrium, living/ dining rooms, kitchen, family room, 2 baths, an all electric kitchen and glass walls for the back of the house! This was something I had always wanted -- this expanded the rooms so we could enjoy the trees and plants, the beauty of nature and natural light streaming into the house reminding us of the paradise we left. There was a wooden fence already built around the property giving us privacy, this is something we had to get used to. Back Home, growing of mock orange bushes marked property boundaries. This is the mainland, the heart of the Silicon Valley, the Bay Area -- this is a community we had to adapt to.

You are Standing in the atrium or courtyard as I like to call it. It recalls of an old Chinese concept and of our home in Honolulu we designed and built. Eichler's original design called for an open air space. We planted in the design spots around the atrium, and added hanging plants When the children were growing up, it was used as a passage way to get to other rooms or take the overflow of people when we had family get-togethers. Today, it is covered with a roof and has become the garden room, a a sitting room for me and my guests. It is a haven for relaxing, for quiet time, for enjoying the beauty of nature away from the hectic world just outside my front door.

Step into the living room, the fireplace dominates this part and flows into the dining room. When we first moved in we had no drapes --even during the winter months we depended on the radiant heating to keep us warm, occasionally using the fireplace when we felt like it. The children wore shorts during this season and felt comfortable as the heat rose from the floor to the ceiling. However, drapes and plastic panels had to be installed over the glass panels when it became to costly to heat the house and conservation of power was the hue and cry of the times.

The walls are the original natural mahogany panels and as you can see, I have covered the walls with framed Chinese art, a memory tree stands next to the fireplace, plants around the room to purify the air naturally, Chinese furniture which reflects my Chinese background. The dining room features a large table to accommodate our big family, a Chinese cabinet displays my collection of Kwan Yin, the Chinese Goddess of Mercy, Blue and White Ceramics. Our son Byron held his wedding here in this room. The red cabinet at the end of the dining room was painted to celebrate the occasion with Chinese designed drawer pulls.

Her is the kitchen with original sliding door cabinets, original oven, original Formica counters, The kitchen withstood the 1989 earthquake without spilling any of it's contents. Only one of the glass panels at the end, leading to the bedroom wing crashed only because I had a cabinet placed there. Luckily I had glass insurance which was replaced promptly by the insurance company. Thank God for that!

The bedrooms are all in one wing of the house -- the quiet zone -- a master bedroom with access to the back patio which I really enjoy. The 2 bedrooms were adequate for the 4 girls to share - 2 to each room. The third bedroom facing the atrium and with an entrance to the was just right for som Byron. The children enjoyed the house, adapted to the communtiy, went to elementaty, middle school, graduated from Fremont High School, graduated from San Jose State, Foothill College, UC Berkeley, found employment as occupational therapist, dental hygientist, software engineer and deputy sheriff. Mr. Pang was a microwave engineer in the telecommunications business, deceased in 1978.

I am involved with history, preservation and civic volunteer work. I am so enamoured of the Eichler homes, I want to preserve my home as much as I can to the original so I can pass it on as my legacy to history and an acknowledgement to Joseph Eichler and his architects who built desirable, affordable and attractive tract homes for people like me to achieve the American Dream or owning our own homes. LONG LIVE THE EICHLERS!

Sunnyvale Public Library • 665 W. Olive Ave., Sunnyvale CA 94086
(408) 730-7300 • www.sunnyvalelibrary.org
Contact Us • Site Map