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ARCHITECTURE AND THE CITY FESTIVAL
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ARCHITECTURAL TOURS
Scroll down to read more about the tours, or jump to the Tours Category that interests you most by clicking on one of the links below: |
HOME TOURS
|  | San Francisco Living: Home Tours Weekend (2.5 LUs per day)
September 12–13, 10:00 am–4:00 pm
$60-$70 AIA Members | $75-$85 Nonmembers
Various San Francisco neighborhoods
www.aiasf.org/hometours | Sponsored by Dwell, 7x7, City CarShare, Hometta, Malcolm Davis Architecture, NanaWall, Room & Board, San Francisco Bike Coalition | 
© Bruce Damonte | This popular weekend showcases modernism at its finest and features a wide variety of architectural styles, neighborhoods and distinctive San Francisco residences, all in keeping with this year’s theme of Everyday, Design. Participating firms include Malcolm Davis Architecture, Apparatus Architecture, Axelrod Architects, Boor Bridges Architecture, Edmonds + Lee Architects, John Maniscalco Architecture, LSarc, Mork-Ulnes Design, Sasaki|Architect: Strachan Forgan, SB Architects|Architect: Bruce Wright, Studio Sarah Willmer Architecture and WRT Solomon ETC. Bike Home Tours
We recommend biking the Home Tours weekend. Bicyclists must purchase day-of tickets at the Home Tours Headquarters and must show up with their bicycle in order to receive the discount. Bicycle tickets are $60 AIA/SFBC Members; $70 Nonmembers. | |
RELATED WEEKEND EVENTS
| | The Architect’s Forum (2 LUs)
September 10, 6:30 pm
Free to Home Tours Participants | $20 Nonparticipants
Istanbul Rug, 424 9th Street, San Francisco
| Sponsored by Dwell, 7x7, Hometta, Istanbul Rug | 
© Bruce Damonte | During this educational panel and cocktail reception, tour participants will learn more about the design, construction and overall costs related to the homes showcased during the weekend. | | Lunch with Dwell Editors and Tour of the Dwell Headquarters
September 11, 11:30 am–1:30 pm
$50 AIA Members + Nonmembers. Lunch included.
Dwell, 40 Gold Street, San Francisco | Sponsored by Dwell | | This is an exciting opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the award-winning design magazine. Meet your favorite editors and hear the back-story behind the articles and homes featured in the publication. | |
HOME TOURS HEADQUARTERS & EVENTS AT THE HEADQUARTERS
| | Home Tours Headquarters
September 12–13, 9:00 am–4:00 pm
Stable, 2128 Folsom Street, San Francisco
| Sponsored by NanaWall | 
© Bruce Damonte | Once the site of the mayor’s carriage house in the 1800s, this year’s Home Tours Headquarters, Stable, maintains the unique character of its original structure with updated modern elements. Revived by Malcolm Davis Architecture, the building is now home to Malcolm’s architectural practice, several small business offices and an apartment. The old carriage space below is a storefront for Stable Café, Mission Creek Kitchen and a gallery space, The Stable Salon. At the Home Tours Headquarters, you can purchase day-of tickets or pick up will-call tickets, tour the new Stable Café and collective spaces.
| | Architectural Play!
September 12–13, 9:00 am–4:00 pm
Stable, 2128 Folsom Street, San Francisco
| | Throughout the weekend, participants can learn more about the unique location and take part in drop-in programming, such as “Talk to an Architect,” and “Shelter the Norm,” hosted by the AIA San Francisco Small Business Committee and KMD, lounge under a parametric canopy made by Bios Design Collective, and enjoy food and drinks from Stable Café.
| | San Francisco Living Exhibition
September 12–13, 9:00 am–4:00 pm
Stable, 2128 Folsom Street, San Francisco
| | Throughout the weekend, participants can learn more about the unique residences on the 2009 home tours in this exhibition showcasing the participating firms.
© Sharon Risedorph
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Cocktail Reception
September 12, 4:00 pm
Free to Home Tours Participants | $5 Nonparticipants
Stable, 2128 Folsom Street, San Francisco | Sponsored by Dwell | 
© Melanie McGraw | After enjoying the first day of the San Francisco Living: Home Tours weekend, join AIA San Francisco and Dwell for Saturday afternoon cocktails, music and conversation. | WEEKEND DEALS
Show the Architecture and the City guide at either Zinc Details location and receive a 10% discount off any purchase. Both stores will also host a wine reception on September 13 from 4:00-6:00 pm. Don’t miss the raffle to win a $500 gift certificate at Room & Board, and other prizes, at the Home Tours Headquarters. | Sponsored by Room&Board, Zinc Details |
BEHIND THE SCENES TOURS
| | Treasure Island: 2020’s Best Place to Live (2 LUs)
September 3, 10:30 am
$20 AIA Members | $30 Nonmembers
Tour start point: Casa de la Vista on Treasure Island, San Francisco
| Sponsored by Perkins + Will | 
© Bruce Damonte | The new Treasure Island is holistically designed for sustainable living, and this tour will reveal how planning decisions can lead to better everyday living for future residents. Treasure Island will be the centerpiece of San Francisco Bay—unmistakable, unmatchable and impossible to miss. Over the next decade, it will be transformed into a self-sustaining community defining new standards in sustainable, happy, healthy living. It will anticipate the way we need to live on this planet: together in nature, nestled in context, yet comforted by a sense of neighborhood and home.
Shuttle service to Treasure Island provided for first 20 people to register. Limited seating. First come, first serve. Please specify whether or not you will be requiring transportation when you register.
Tour led by Karen Alschuler and Kamala Subbarayan of Perkins + Will.
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| | Follow that Car!: Architectural Run (1.5 LUs)
September 6, 9:00 am
$20 AIA Members | $30 Nonmembers
Tour start point: Hallidie Building, 130 Sutter Street, San Francisco
| Pace 12 minute miles. Total running time 75 minutes. Composer William Day will create a sound piece to accompany the run on MP3 players (provided). | 
© Bruce Damonte | Starting at the office building of Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon, this architectural adventure follows—or at least attempts to keep up with!—car chase scenes from famous films shot in San Francisco. Tracking Madeleine from Hitchcock’s Vertigo, the run follows Jimmy Stewart through the streets of downtown San Francisco, before meeting up with Gene Hackman from The Conversation in Union Square, (a glimpse of Tippy Hedren carrying a cage of birds, perhaps?), and then chases after Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, among other adventures. At the Bay, the run hooks up with Clint Eastwood from Dirty Harry near Embarcadero Center before returning to the beginning. Be forewarned: this is definitely a hilly run!
Tour led by Donna Schumacher of X: architecture/art. |
| | Exotic Hardwoods + ConcreteWorks Factory Tour (2 SDs)
September 17, 1:00–4:00 pm
$20 AIA Members | $30 Nonmembers
Tour start point: Exotic Hardwoods, 4800 Coliseum Way, Oakland
| Sponsored by Exotic Hardwoods + ConcreteWorks | 
© ConcreteWorks | This two-for-one tour takes you across the Bay to some of the design industry’s most interesting— and dare we say ‘exotic’—factories. The first stop is Exotic Hardwoods, an environmentally responsible company that strives to expand the selection of unique sustainable veneers and carries products that inspire everyday design sensibilities. The largest supplier of FSC-certified woods on the West Coast, the showroom will offer a peek at FSC-certified panels being manufactured. Following the tour of the factory, participants will head to ConcreteWorks Studio, a design firm specializing in the craft of concrete, located at 1137 57th Avenue. Founder Mark Rogero has developed a unique casting process, using 80% recycled concrete content, that enables new and limitless possibilities for an age-old material.
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| | Second Bay Traditions Bicycle Ride: A Tour of San Francisco Modern Architecture (3 LUs)
September 20, 11:00 am
$20 AIA/SFBC Members | $30 Nonmembers
Tour start point: Justin Herman Plaza (Next to Vaillancourt Fountain), San Francisco
| Sponsored by San Francisco Bicycle Coalition | 
© Adriana Nunez | This tour will focus on notable modern residential architecture outside of San Francisco’s downtown core. It will look at works by Second Bay Area Tradition architects and contemporaries, including buildings by Richard Neutra, William Wurster, Gardner Dailey, Henry Hill, Joseph Eichler and Anshen + Allen. Part of a rich architectural tradition, these buildings are also a feature of our everyday landscape. Viewing these houses through the focused lens of local architects and planners, our daily city becomes a richer, more revealed place.
Tour led by David Baker, FAIA, Robin Levitt and Rob Bregoff. Total biking time is four hours. Ride will cover 20 miles, including hilly terrain. Riders must provide their own bicycle (low-gearing recommended) and wear comfortable clothing with layers and a helmet. The tour will stop for lunch at the appropriate time (lunch not included).
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| | Gardens Everyday (2.5 LUs)
September 26, 12:00–5:00 pm
$30 AIA Members + ASLA Members | $40 Nonmembers
Various San Francisco neighborhoods
Locations will be provided to ticket holders only. Tickets can be picked up at UCSF Medicinal + Botanical Garden - Potrero Hill, 654 Minnesota Street (Between 18th Street and 19th Street), San Francisco starting at 11:30 am on Saturday.
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© Ben Fash | Showcasing the artistic expressions of landscape designers Topher Delaney, Shirley Watts and Cevan Forristt, this self-guided tour takes participants through some of the city’s innovative garden spaces, including a new Urban Contemporary Botanical Medicinal Garden at UCSF, private residential gardens in Potrero and a metal-meets-petal hideaway retreat for a Glen Park bicycler. The tour concludes with a backyardcookout themed reception at SEAM Studio, “an atelier which serves as a venue for the investigation of cultural, social and artistic narratives ‘seamed’ together to form dynamic physical installations.”
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| | Portola Valley Town Center Tour (2 SDs)
September 26, 2:00 pm
$20 AIA Members | $30 Nonmembers
Tour start point: Historic Schoolhouse, 765 Portola Road, Portola Valley
| Sponsored by Green Design Furniture | 
© Cesar Rubio Photography | The new $21 million Portola Valley Town Center, designed in a collaboration by Siegel & Strain Architects and Goring and Straja Architects occupies an 11-acre site beside a meadow and walnut grove. The impressive new project, which sits on the San Andreas Fault, consists of three main buildings: a library, town hall and community hall. It also includes a baseball field, soccer field, tennis courts and a 300-foot-long stretch of restored creek that had been diverted into a culvert. The architects, builders and town officials involved in the redevelopment of this civic center were focused on creating a space that all ages of the community would use on a daily basis while being thoughtful of issues such as sustainability, energy use, open space, natural habitat and landscape. This tour will look at ways in which architecture can, and should, preserve open space, restore natural habitat, connect to the landscape, encourage community involvement and reveal eco-friendly components.
Tour led by Larry Strain, FAIA, Jim Goring, AIA, and Susi Marzuola, AIA, project architects, and Ted Driscoll, former Mayor of Portola Valley.
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| | Heath Ceramics 50th Anniversary Factory Tour (1 LU)
September 27, 2:00 pm
Free; Registration required.
Heath Ceramics, 400 Gate Five Road, Sausalito
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© Renee Zellweger | Led by current owners and creative team Robin Petravic and Catherine Bailey, this behind-the-scenes tour showcases the historic factory’s unique process of working with clay. Designed by Claude Stoller of Marquis+Stoller in 1959, with founder Edith Heath, the factory is a classic, modern example of a sociallyresponsible, architecturally interesting factory, studio and store. The company’s values are reflected in work environments that emphasize light, air and the landscape within the factory context. On this tour, you’ll experience the factory, and get a behind-thescenes look at the building and manufacturing process. |
WALKING TOURS
On these weekly tours, explore the everyday nooks and crannies of San Francisco, and the impact architecture and design has on your everyday life.
| | Victorian “Tract Homes” of the Mission (2 LUs)
September 1, 3:00–5:00 pm
$15 AIA Members | $25 Nonmembers
Tour start point: Corner of 23rd and Bartlett Streets (Next to Velvet Cantina), San Francisco
| Sponsored by Page & Turnbull | 
© Bruce Damonte | Affordable housing was just as important in the 19th century as it is today. As a developing suburb during the Victorian era, San Francisco’s Mission District became a laboratory where architects and builders took advantage of mass-produced materials and assemblyline construction techniques to produce an astonishing array of residential housing for middle-income and working-class residents. This tour will explore chronologically successive waves of development, ranging from mirrored single-family homes of the 1870s constructed by large real estate syndicates, to whole-block subdivisions of flats, cottages and row houses constructed by merchant builders in the 1880s and 1890s.
Tour led by Jonathan Lammers of Page & Turnbull. |
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| The Mid-Century City: Modernism on Cathedral Hill (2 LUs)
September 8, 3:00–5:00 pm
$15 AIA Members | $25 Nonmembers
Tour start point: North entrance to St. Mary’s Cathedral, Geary Blvd. between Gough and Cleary Court.
| | | The Cathedral Hill neighborhood exemplifies the utopian (and some may say unforgiving) planning ideals of the modern movement - the separation of the car and pedestrian, abundant open space and apartments clustered around landscaped courtyards to serve the working and middle class population. This tour will visit St. Mary’s Cathedral, an iconic sculptural structure hovering over an abstract plaza, designed in the 1960’s by the noted Italian structural engineer Pier Luigi Nervi. The tour will also explore two large Eichler apartment complexes, a modern residential development built by the Longshoreman’s Union and Japantown, a retail center designed by Minoru Yamasaki, architect of the World Trade Center. Tour led by Docomomo.
Note: The original "Gardens are for People" tour was cancelled. |
| | Industrial Green: Lessons in Sustainability from SOMA’s Historic Building Stock (2 SDs)
September 15, 3:00–5:00 pm
$15 AIA Members | $25 Nonmembers
Tour start point: 57 Columbia Square, San Francisco
| Sponsored by Page & Turnbull | In the wake of the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco’s South of Market (SOMA) area was redeveloped as one of the great industrial centers of the West. Designed with an emphasis on flexibility, as well as profitability, many of the new buildings employed inherently sustainable features. This tour will explore the “green” design of SOMA’s industrial buildings, from flexible loft floor plans to the use of skylights and natural ventilation. The tour will also include side trips to some of SOMA’s back-alley residential enclaves where efficient, low-cost housing allowed workers to live within walking distance of their work site.
Tour led by Christina Dikas of Page & Turnbull. |
| | The Future Waterfront: Sea Level Rise and the San Francisco Bay (2 HSWs)
September 22, 3:00–5:00 pm
$15 AIA Members | $25 Nonmembers
Tour start point: BCDC Office, 50 California Street, 26th Floor, San Francisco
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© Bruce Damonte | The San Francisco Bay shoreline, like similar estuaries around the world, is comprised of urban waterfronts, local communities, public infrastructure and marsh habitats. This walking tour will begin with a short presentation about the greatest threat to the San Francisco Bay Area over the next century—that climate change will make the Bay larger due to sea level rise and threaten existing built and natural resources. Join us as we talk about adapting waterfronts to global sea level rise in the place in which we live—San Francisco. Tour led by Will Travis and Brad McCrea of Bay Conservation and Development Commission. |
| | Cultural Gems in the Mission District (2 LUs)
September 29, 3:00–5:00 pm
$15 AIA Members | $25 Nonmembers
Tour start point: 500 Capp Street (Corner of Capp and 20th Streets), San Francisco
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© Jeannie Choe | Discover three cultural gems in the Mission District: seminal artist David Ireland’s home, Stable and the new Southern Exposure. Each space speaks to the historical roots of the neighborhood while furthering the emerging cultural movement of the district. The tour starts with a look at the exterior of David Ireland’s personal residence, soon to be renovated; then passes the recently opened Stable building, a historic carriage house turned coffee shop and food collective; and ends with an in-depth look at the brand new Southern Exposure. Southern Exposure’s new space will be an important and vital element of the cultural life of San Francisco. The building provides flexible spaces that support a community of visual artists, cultural producers and the public. Participants will get a special peak at the opening exhibition, Bellwether, showcasing Ant Farm, Renee Gertler, Liz Glynn, Jonn Herschend, Whitney Lynn, Jay Nelson, Nonchalance, Lordy Rodriguez, Christine Wong Yap, and SoEx’s Youth Advisory Board. Tour led by Quinn Morgan, Mark Jensen, AIA, Courtney Fink and Richard Johnson. |
Need more information? Contact us here. |
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