In an era when many aspects of our lives become seemingly obsolete and replaceable overnight, the fabric of the city often feels like the most permanent feature of our daily experience. With the 2012 Architecture and the City festival theme, “Design: It’s About Time,” this year's program aims to explore the enduring power of design in our built environment.

Much of San Francisco is at least a century old – older than most of its residents. And the architects among us are charged with designing cathedrals and museums meant to last half a millennium, or homes intended to last longer than most of us expect to live.

But the rapidity of urban change and reality of economic times challenges us to consider the notion of permanence from a new perspective. Pop-up stores, storefront galleries and food trucks can be found in nearly every corner of the city, transforming building uses and public spaces, and redefining the way we live and work. For new residents, it is sometimes hard to imagine the bio-tech hub of Mission Bay as a snarl of railroad tracks, or that the sprawling South of Market neighborhood’s warehouse structures had many layered uses before their latest repurposing as vibrant workspaces for some of the world’s most innovative companies.

This September, we invite you to pause and partake in some of the many events, to hear great designers discuss their work, to explore spaces and buildings you pass each day and to consider the multiple layers of history which have shaped San Francisco. View outstanding contemporary residences in neighborhoods you haven’t visited during San Francisco Living: Home Tours September 15+16 and join us in conversation with Bay Area designers as they collaborate to re-think contemporary urban problems at GOOD Design on September 27.