Shelterporn special: AIA Houston 2006 Home Tour

Yeah, yeah, we know it's not Saturday, but this is worth a special Shelterporn mention: This weekend, you can indulge your list for architect-designed homes (admit it, you have one) at the AIA Houston's 2006 Home Tour. The tour will include 10 architect-designed houses, including a recent Texas Society of Architects award-winning design:

• 505 West Alabama, a four-unit townhome project by Collaborative Designworks
• 4029 Chatham, a contemporary home on a Highland Village-area lot by Val Glitsch
• 3728 Garnet, a Southside Place home for a family of five by Jay Baker Architects organized around a large live oak tree
• 2279 Jean, a new Stern & Bucek-designed home designed to complement the contemporary 1950s homes of Riverside Terrace
• 302 Crestwood, a Memorial Park-area home designed by MC2 Architects to show off the owners' art collection and the wooded setting
• 608 Stanford, two modern, angular townhomes by Francois de Menil
• 41 West Rivercrest, a gargantuan, architecturally correct Southern Colonial home in west Houston designed by L. Barry Davidson
• 1815 Southmore, a cool live/work studio and residence by Intexure Architects
• 5414 Valkeith, the renovation of a 1960s Meyerland ranch house by m + a architecture studio
• 845 Pecanwood, a unique Memorial-area home raised 42 inches off the ground to avoid the roots of surrounding oak and pine trees and a fault line that runs through the lot, by Pope Design

The tour — you take yourself from house to house, so you can build your itinerary however you want — runs from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Buy tickets ($25) at the AIA Houston office, 3000 Richmond Ave., Suite 500, or at Sunset Settings, 2610 Sunset Blvd. Check the AIA's tour website for more information.