10 Homes Slated for AIA Tour

Care for retractable glass doors that disappear to truly open the indoors to the elements? Or would you rather explore a 'Zero Cottage' designed to consume zero energy, or close to it?

Fans of rooms with a view will love San Francisco Living Home Tours, which lets the paying public visit ten homes and residential communities—five on Saturday, September 28; and another five on Sunday, September 29. Sponsors are the AIA San Francisco and the Center for Architecture + Design.

Among the homes are a deconstructed Victorian in the lower Haight whose designer preserved its historic bow front façade while turning the rest of the house into a glass-walled barn.

Architect Rick Johnson, of Richard Johnson Design, is opening his family's own house, a rebuilt 1907 "urban cabin" on Linda Street in the Mission. The house links the interior both to "urban greenery" and "the urban fabric," Johnson says. "We wanted a strong connection to Linda Street and to the outdoors."

Not only did Johnson design the house, he is helping redesign the streetscape along the once-troubled dead-end street, with plantings, benches and more. "Now a lot of neighbors hang out on the street," he says.

Besides self-guided tours, which run 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., there will be an architect's forum 6 p.m. September 26.