
Most folks know about San Francisco's famed painted ladies, our city's fine stock of beautiful Victorian homes. Not so well known are the numerous fine examples of modern residences that dot the city.
For the last five years or so, the American Institute of Architects SF has been hosting some of the best architect-designed homes in their autumn home tour. This year's tour is September 13-14. The photo shows one of my favorite homes (but unfortunately it was on a previous year's tour), the Graziani/Mathews residence in the Eureka Valley neighborhood.
You say that modern architecture is cold and turns you off? The homes on the tour are well chosen gems that illustrate the richness and elegance that modern architecture can be. Take a second look and you'll see that these homes, both single and multi family, are nothing like the many shoddy, slapped-together newer developments that spawned during the dotcom burst.
The SF Living Home Tour allows participants to visit each home at their own pace and spend as much time in each residence as desired. In the past, these homes have been well furnished and appointed and I would expect the same to be true this year as well.
Answer to last week's bonus question: 32 cities have populations of 500,000 or more according to the 2005 US Census estimate.