Chapter 16 Chapter 3 The Creator's Secret

In the fall of 1986, while Phil Anderson and Ken Arrow were drawing up the attendee list for an economics seminar, George Cowan was negotiating a three-year lease deal with the Christray Abbey in the Diocese of Santa Fe.The brick bungalow structure sits on a winding lane known as Canyon Road, right next to the expensive gallery-lined lot. It's time for the Institute to officially operate.So far, funding organizations such as the MacArthur Foundation have begun to allocate funds to the Institute on a case-by-case basis, and Cowin and his colleagues have recruited some staff for the Institute.These employees urgently need their own office space.And, with economic seminars and other seminars scheduled, the Institute desperately needs office space to accommodate desks and telephones to allow visiting academics a place to work.Cowan felt that although the monastery was small, it was enough to carry out the work, especially the price was so cheap that people couldn't let it go.So in February 1987, the staff of the Institute moved into the monastery to work.Within a few days, the small space was packed with stuff.