Breslau points out that client tours can often be more valuable for revealing what's not there. A working trip to Sophia Antipolis, France's state-sponsored technology center near Cannes, was intended to glean design cues for a similar grouping of structures planned for Bahrain. The scattered French installation seemed harmonious with the region's lush, rolling landscape, but both Breslau and his clients soon perceived a shortcoming. "We sensed that the exchange of ideas between people and companies was hampered by the buildings being so spread out," he recounts. "Instead, a dense, urbanlike cluster encourages that. The lesson was: Proximity has value. We might not have had that same conclusion without the tour."

"I was invited to join the pastor and other members of Corpus Christi parish in Sandwich, Mass., on a tour of Romanesque churches through France, Italy, and Spain. Seeing so many churches and participating in a variety of liturgies was a wonderful way for architect and client to acquire a foundation of shared experiences. A new church-Romanesque in outline, but with modern furnishings, sculpture, and stained glass-was the outcome."

Tour goals and logistics are not all that needs to be managed-so do client expectations. Two years ago, Steve Ziger, a principal at Ziger/Snead in Baltimore, took a university client to see Renzo Piano's Morgan Library expansion in New York at the client's request. The group, including the dean of the medical college, fell in love with the glass-enclosed courtyard. "When I did the math, I saw that the Morgan design cost $12,000 per square foot," says Ziger. "Our budget was $3,000 per square foot. The dean kept noting details he said they had to have, and I kept reminding him that we have one quarter of the budget."

The emotional aspects of tours can have a significant practical impact on the end result, too. SOM managing partner George Efstathiou had a client, Bank Boston, organize a tour for the architects who were going to design a new banking center in São Paulo, Brazil. "They knew we understood design for this type of project and how to integrate the shell and the interior of a bank building, but they also wanted us to capture the flavor of the culture in the design," he remembers. On the four-day excursion, the group traveled aboard a pair of Learjets and found cars waiting to ferry them to an array of municipal, cultural, and artistic sites.

Efstathiou says the effort brought a Brazilian flair to the design, via Oscar Niemeyer and Roberto Burle Marx, that would not have been there otherwise. "The connection we made with the clients on that tour was invaluable," he notes. "If a picture is worth a thousand words, a tour like that is worth a million words."

Dan Daley is a writer based in Nashville, Tenn.