Boulder, Colorado
The Boulder Book Store
one of our favorite places off the Boulder Mall
20 years later
One Week @ AI
The last week in August 1999, I got off the plane in Denver and drove with Lisa Piazza to Boulder to spend a week at AI working on strategy and the Foundation Series WorkFurniture.
As we drove over the rise that looks down on Boulder, I realized that it was exactly 20 years ago this week that Gail (with son Jeff) and I came to Boulder and started MG Taylor Corporation.
It turned out to be a great week of design and planning made even more enjoyable for spending time in this little city that has such great Pattern Language. Boulder was a wonderful place to incubate our business. AI never left keeping its Tech Center here (even though our manufacturing facility is in Glasgow, Kentucky).
What attracted us to Colorado was Lief Smith. What attracted us to Boulder was the Mall and the pure beauty of the place. Boulder was also a city that was working hard to determine its own future and not just create a suburban sprawl leaving a dead core city in the center. To a remarkable degree, it has succeeded in this ambition.
At the end of the week Lisa and I spent time with Lief and friends catching up on nearly 18 years of history. The week of work - getting back to the basics of making environments - the short walks around a Mall full of memories and the dialog with Lief summed up for me just how remarkable these 20 years have been - and how far we have traveled.
Boulder, Colorado
August 29, 1999
posted August 29, 1999
revised September 18, 1999
(note: this document is about 5% finished)
Copyright© 1999 Matt Taylor