Clients always ask me at the beginning of their projects "how much will this renovation cost?" A totally reasonable question. When I go to a store, I want to know the price of a product as well as what it looks like and how it works.

Obviously, the cost of construction is one of the critical components in a deciding if a property is worth the purchase price.

Less obvious to you, my clients, is that the cost of a renovation can vary wildly because every existing building is different. While general construction square foot costs can be useful, they have little accuracy in renovations.

Without a drawing, or at least written document, to help start the conversation, the best we can do is guess based upon past experience.

My suggestion? Hire an architect (or do it yourself) to spend eight or 12 hours visiting the site, discussing the requirements of the job and sketching a scenario that can be priced by a friendly contractor who will provide budget numbers at no cost.

The 1,000 dollars you put out upfront will be well spent towards providing you with peace of mind. If you buy the property, the work can be used in the development of the project. If you don't buy the property because you found out you wouldn't be able to afford to fix up the property, the money was well spent.

I keep worms in my basement. It's a pretty silly exercise, really, as I have no yard and no garden. A few pots do OK outside of my kitchen (a concrete slab, 6' × 13') but the supply of worm castings far outstrips demand. My wife finds it remarkably creepy and won't have much to do with the whole enterprise. Offers of true, free "black gold" to friends are generally met with enthusiasm but little follow-up to actually pick up a load. Thus my inventory is approaching wholesale quantities. They are busy little house-mates, these worms.

Our guts teem with life separate from us in interesting ways. These microbes live on housekeeping chores that, through clever co-evolution, make it possible for us to function as omnivores, among other things. I hope, in my sentimental fashion, to have a house that mimics this lovely dance. Of course, the metaphor has its limits and can quickly devolve to an unappetizing place.

But it does get me thinking about systems and mess. Like most, I instinctively think of the two as mutually exclusive. Maybe even mutually antagonistic. One introduces a system to clean up a mess. One inserts mess into a system as sabotage.

My worms inform me about ways both can live in some level of harmony. On the surface, the system is simple and neat. Food scrap enters the bin; worms eat it and leave castings that I, in turn, give away as Christmas presents. But the decomposing waste dumps a surprising amount of black water. The worms have preferences (mango pits are tough for them). Poor management of the newspaper bedding can lead to fruit fly explosions. Moisture levels must be managed to avoid dry, stiff worms, or the whole bin going anaerobic in slush. But what I've found is that, more than being a forgiving system, it seems happiest when precision is off the table entirely. The more I think of it as a system in the largest sense, with connections to other systems in my life, the more each element of mess seems to have its place.

The black water (diluted) is actually quite tasty for house plants. Tearing a week's worth of NY Times into one inch strips has its pleasures. Metering food scraps into the bins in a way that gives the worms time to do their work but doesn't clog the kitchen with debris is an useful way to think about what, when, and how we eat. Clearing out the bin every couple of months is an astonishingly clear lesson in how things decompose.

System is traditional defined as "a set or arrangement of things so related or connected as to form a unity or organic whole." (Webster's New World College Dictionary) What the worms teach me is the lovely mess of systems. When they intersect with other systems to the extent that boundaries blur.

I like having a dog at our office. Our office dog is Carl, a yellow lab that lives with Jason.

Carl has changed the tone of the office. We are pretty relaxed, but hard working. When Jason proposed that he bring Carl in, part of me imagined that we would spend our time playing with the dog, not working. Instead he spends the day under Jason's desk and periodically trots around the office to check in with all of us. I don't see a drop in production; I see a rise in collegiality and happiness which contributes to our productivity.

The vibe in our office changed along with Carl's arrival. The staff started talking to each other (even) more. Jason talks to Carl and the dog listens. Is it his tone of voice; is it his hand motions, or does he just understand?

Carl makes me see the office in a different way. If we can have a dog here all day, why not a woodshop, why not more employees with even more diverse backgrounds? Will we be the better for it? This is playing... we are putting experiences together in an unusual way (like dogs in the office) and standing back to see what happens. This experience leaves us looking at the world with a slightly different point of view.

Having someone around that is always friendly and licks you is a wonderful distraction. Reaching down to pet Carl and scratch his ears is like taking a tiny vacation. Then I go back to work feeling a tiny bit more relaxed and productive.

Domestic tasks are best when given the attention they deserve. Preparing a meal for a lover on a special occasion has its own gravity; nervousness, anticipation of pleasure, intimacy - it barely qualifies as a domestic task. The standing life-support activities like vacuuming and laundry have almost no weight. They float in and out of our attention almost invisibly. They rise to our awareness only as an annoyance or with unplanned urgency.

But there is also the possibility that sometimes such tasks materialize with a heft and smell that pushes out from behind the background noise of our lives.

Folding a fitted sheet can do that.

Designed to defeat the sensibilities of those who need order, crispness and snap, fitted sheets lean more toward wadding than any other storage system. Maybe that's why hotels generally use only flat sheets. An industrial setting is hostile to the anarchy of a fitted sheet. I admire them for that.

We (fitted sheets and I) have come to some small understanding.

Remove the sheet from the dryer, warm and smelling clean. Place your hand inside one corner and slide your other hand down the long side of the sheet and slip it into the second corner. Place one inside the other, nesting the seams together. Reach down and do the same thing with the other two corners, then neatly pocket all four corners together, keeping the seams aligned. Lay this new assembly down on the table lengthwise and gently smooth out the captured air. Take the corner opposite the collected corners and fold it over on top of the corners. Double again, once in each direction.

The identity of the sheet remains intact. It will not allow you to overcome its character to bunch up and randomly pleat but it grants you the pleasure of order and some degree of efficiency.

Personifying the inanimate world is never a profitable enterprise. But I have found that by granting it its due (as best I can discern) allows me into a place of attention to a real place in the world.

Leaving aside the conference for the moment - maybe more on that in a later post - I want to write a few words about the spectacular museum moment of my trip. For some years I've wanted to visit the Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle and I took the opportunity of being in Paris to do just that.

My wife had to pry me away after three hours of my open-mouthed gawking. What a wonderful museum! It is among the most beautiful museums I have ever visited. Bar none.

After almost 20 years since the central installation was complete, it is beginning to show its age. If they are smart, they will simply assemble as much of the original team as can be found to minimally spruce it up. Every decision was elegant, economical, and beautiful. The designers applied a deeply respectful sense of play in assembling the menagerie. Very little is behind glass, most of the collection occupies the same space as the visitors with only the slimmest of barriers between them. One has the feeling walking among God's wonders, how much a part of this group we are.

The masterfully mounted taxidermy specimens vie for attention with the fossil or skeletal specimens. Because the visitor can look them all in the eye, so to speak, it is more a relationship across time and species than I am used to. Rather than make me uncomfortable, it was profoundly reassuring.

Visit this museum! It's worth the transatlantic voyage!

While designing the Morris Arboretum's tree canopy walk (sorry I am not finished writing about this) I was looking for a visual inspiration for its towers. I started with the incredible geometry of these pylons. Triangles dominate and resonate throughout. Large and small. The cables that fly over your head not only transmit power across the sky, they also provide stability. All the towers act as a piece, holding each other up. See how transparent and lace-like they are. The structural components are paper thin angles that make huge three dimensional trusses in the sky.

And the towers vary by the installation, each set with their own character, marching to the horizon.

The need for architects to display their work in a sanctioned environment could lead to something very successful. I see Architizer beginning where Coroflot left off.

Read more about the site and its launch at Metropolis Magazine.

What do you think about a social network dedicated to Architects? Is it a much needed addition to the industry or just another clutter-filled website?

We visited the Salvador Dali Museum there-an unlikely location for this impressive collection of this artist's work. Apparently, the Morse family of Ohio collected his work and at some point ran out of space for the collection. They made a national request for a home for this sizable collection. St. Pete stepped forward with a home. They are now building a new and larger building for it-also downtown.

I was most impressed by Dali's later work. Everyone knows his earlier surrealistic work with the dripping clocks, sliced eye and ants in a flesh wound. Less familiar are his canvases from the '60's onward.

The Persistence of Memory - Salvador Dali

They brought me back to a sensibility of a time that I had forgotten. His work from this era is large, bold, experimental, spiritual and hallucinogenic (I kept wondering what drugs he was using). Like all painters, he was obsessed with perception and in his case, content. His work is also incredibly accessible as it is painterly, figural and full of references to popular culture.

We loved understanding the stories behind the canvasses-a lunar landing mixed with Columbus' discovery of the New World, mediated by the invasion of Spain by the French via the excesses of Club Med. (I am not kidding).

Discovery of America - Salvador Dali

Multiple portraits of his muse and wife, Gala that turn into a portrait of Abe Lincoln when you squint at the canvass from 16 meters.
Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea

Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea - Salvador Dali

Multiple images of the famous statue of Venus de Milo become a symbol of Spanish culture as embodied in an ethereal portrait of a bullfighter and bull in a bullfighting ring once you stare at them. They echo de Chirico's lonely architectural landscapes . WOW! What a show.
Salvador-Dali-Hallucinogenic-Toreador

Hallucinogenic Toreador - Salvador Dali

Apparently, Dali collaborated with many others. Soon to come is the 2010 release of Dali's animated collaboration with Walt Disney. This project was "lost" and never released. Can't wait.

Some in our office have the iPhone, others wish for it, and some didn't drink the Kool-Aid. But, this type of feature makes it hard to avoid the fact that Apps have the capability of speaking to a broad audience with acutely specific interests, like architects and designers.

This led me to ask the question, "what other architecture Apps are out there today?"

I performed a quick search and found three more winners:

I.D. Wood : a reference App with 60 samples of different types of exotic and common woods from around the world.

Sherwin Williams ColorSnap and Benjamin Moore Color Capture : Apps that allow users to take a picture with their phone's camera, highlight a color within the picture, and the applications will match the color with several options from their color libraries.

Are there any more Apps we can add to this list?