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In 1967 the City of Sunnyvale was starting to up fill up. Most of the
single family land was accounted for and had been built on. At this time
however, there was still land available in what the City called it's R2 zoning
districts. This was land that mostly bordered major thoroughfares. In
1967 what was commonly built on R2 zoning was duplexes. At this time, the
demand for duplexes was low hence the available land.
Donald J. Bahl saw this availability of land and saw an opportunity for a new
design. He went to San Juan Capistrano to see a new type of house.
They were calling it a Patio House. He met with the Architects Robert
Jones and Edwin Hom. Together they came up with The Bahl Patio Home.
This design won an American
Institute Of Architect award
winning design. This was a new design concept for the City. The 1st Patio Homes were approved on a
4-3 vote by the City Counsel. One of the
City Counsel member voiced his opinion after the vote and said, "Well we
have just created an instant slum in Sunnyvale". The Next evolution
of design came when Donald J. Bahl decided to build some of the first townhouse
in Sunnyvale based on the Patio Home design. This was done in 1971.
You can see from this old tract map that the area where the Cluster Homes are
built was originally intended to be Patio Homes. The reason this was done
was because even in 1971 home prices were starting to get out of reach for most
people. People loved the Patio Homes but wanted more square
footage. So Donald J. Bahl and team design a 2100 s.f. patio home in
Mountain View. Here is an interesting side note about the planning
process in Sunnyvale. None of the 5 Patio home projects which went through
the City of Sunnyvale were approved unanimously. They were all split decision by
the City Counsel. In Fact, the City staff and Planning Commissions recommended
denial for all 5 projects.
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