“For even as your brain, nerves, heart, lungs and stomach are hidden from view, so it is with the city.” —Harry Granick, Underneath New York, 1947

Opening Night Party: August 27, 2010

Now in it’s seventh year, AIA San Francisco’s Architecture and the City Festival is the nation’s largest architectural festival showcasing tours, films, exhibitions, lectures and more. Whether you are looking to become involved with the local architecture and design community or simply want to learn more about the city in which you live, Architecture and the City offers an unparalleled opportunity to experience San Francisco.

The 2010 festival promises new and exciting ways to engage in conversation about our city. The theme “Investigating Urban Metabolisms” explores the notion of the city as a living, breathing organism that is as multi-layered, intricate and in flux as the human body. With a strong emphasis on how the city is organized, programming will look at information systems, ecological systems, building systems, transportation systems, surveillance systems, life cycle systems, natural systems, and more.

In addition, festival programming promises to explore the nuanced ways architects and designers thoughtfully impact our communities and reflect ever-important issues of sustainability. For the third year in a row, the festival will offer architectural programming for the whole family, tours of evolving San Francisco neighborhoods and dining by design, a unique opportunity to enjoy our local culinary arts with the architects and chefs who make it possible.

Throughout the festival, participants will also have the opportunity to discover the best in residential architecture during the San Francisco Living: Home Tours weekend, which returns September 11-12; take in films that examine the relationship between architecture and celluloid; partake in architectural runs and bicycle rides; and enjoy lectures by renowned architects and designers.