Live Downtown Houston home tour

Last week the AIA hosted their annual home tour, and tomorrow the Downtown Houston Alliance is giving folks a chance to see residences in some of Houston's most historic and moneyed buildings. The Live Downtown Home Tour is from 10am to 5pm on Saturday, November 3rd. Stops on the tour include Commerce Towers, The Beaconsfield (not the Savoy across the street!), the Four Seasons, Hogg Palace (no, not this place), and several other loft properties.

Also, Massa's Restaurant and Massa's Seafood Grill are offering a 50% discount on their menu items for those with a Downtown Home Tour wristband, and Tropioca is offering a 10% discount at the Tour headquarters (Commerce Towers, 914 Main St.).

Tickets are $20 at the tour for members of the Houston Downtown Alliance, and $25 for non-members, and are available at the Live Downtown Home Tour headquarters at Commerce Tower (914 Main St.).

Featured stops include:

• The Beaconsfield - built in 1910, this is Houston's oldest residential midrise (high, back then) (1700 Main St.)
• Capitol Lofts - Completed in 1906 and designed by Alfred C. Finn, the original facade was covered with glass and granite in the 1980s (711 Main St.)
• Commerce Towers - built in 1928 by Jesse Jones and renovated in 2003 into 125 condominiums (914 Main St.)
• Four Seasons - luxury living inside a 1981 Caudill-Rowlett-Scott designed building (1300 Lamar)
• Hermann Lofts - originally designed by F.S. Glover & Son in 1917, Gensler led the rehabilitation into lofts in 1998 (214 Travis)
• Hogg Palace - originally the Armor building developed by William C. Hogg in 1921, and restored externally in 1978 and internally in 1995 (401 Louisiana)
• Kirby Lofts - built in 1926 and originally housing Palais Royal, Alfred C. Finn's building is also covered with a glass facade (917 Main St.)
• St. Germain Lofts - originally the Kress building, rehabilitated by Randall Davis, with the Flying Saucer on the ground level (705 Main St.)

Postcard: Kress Building, c. 1915; currently St. Germain lofts