For more than 20 years, MG Taylor Corporation has been a leader in designing, modeling, manufacturing, and using environments, tools, and processes to employ group genius in solving complex problems.  One important discovery the Taylors made early in this practice was that the environment--the comfort, flexibility, adaptability, sense of play, uniqueness--plays an important role in developing group genius.  In the Taylor's model of facilitation there are seven key elements, with Environment and Tooling and Technical Systems sharing equal billing with Body of Knowledge, Work Process Facilitation, Education, Project Management and Venture Management. Taylor practices have shown that if these elements are properly managed, group genius will naturally emerge.

Athenaeum International came to being in the late 1980's, and in the early 1990's began to focus solely on design and construction of our environments.  From a one-man operation, the organization has grown to a web with nodes in Boulder and Erie, Colorado, Louisville, Kentucky, Tullahoma, Tennessee, and Hilton Head, South Carolina. Athenaeum International has been instrumental in developing MG Taylor's web of centers and RDS capability ranging throughout the US and into Canada and Europe.With Bill Blackburn as President, the organization has grown capable of designing and coordinating construction of complex environments.  Recently, AI has spearheaded the design and construction of large spaces for a multi-national consulting firm, the marketing sector of an international consumer products firm, for the integration team of a large New York health care organization, and smaller spaces for individual offices at home or at corporate centers. Design development is now in progress for a large pharmaceutical client,  hotel and software development firms, and several others. In addition, AI takes an active role in designing the environment for our mobile Rapid Deployment Solution events.
 

Although it has grown rapidly, the organization has not lost its focus on individual comfort and creativity. We have developed many innovative solutions based on the needs and suggestions of individual knowledge workers. One favorite anecdote is about the development of the SailDog^TM system.  Recently while digging through our archives, knowledge workers found an e-mail from Michael Kaufman to Bryan Coffman and Robert Darling, all long-time knowledge workers in our network. Michael asked,  "S'poze we had a complete executive system--a file cabinet with a small write-on wall that executives could simply wheel into central meeting rooms?"  A few more e-mails and our shop developed the SailDog. In addition to large, collaborative environments, our designs include smaller, more personal areas sheltered in the Pod^TM or CubeOffice^TM systems.

 
The map indicates locations in which we have centers or have had RDS deployments.  There is wide variety in our environments and we would delight in showing you photos of all of them.  But you can understand that many of our clients have very sensitive proprietary information involved in their centers. While we are awaiting approval to publish information about our client environments, we hope you will enjoy seeing photographs of a few client centers and our own knOwhere^TM Stores in the following sections:
 
 
 
 
 

Early Years
Middle Years, 1986-1993
Rapid Deployment Solutions, 1994-1998
Growing Years, 1996-1998
Products
Site Map
A Health Care Client, New York 1998
Borgess Health Alliance Navigation Center^TM Facility, Kalamazoo, MI, 1999
Ernst & Young's Atlanta ASE Cube Office ^TM System, 1999
Ernst & Young's ASE, Utrecht, Netherlands, 1999