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Concha
Acústica.
 
El arquitecto norteamericano Glen Small, es el creador de esta obra, la gigantesca Concha Acústica que se levanta de espaldas al Lago Xolotlán y que cuesta 850 mil dólares.  Galeria de Monumentos y Fuentes http://www.myfatherthegenius.com/film_arch_gallery.html
Milagros Sánchez Pinell Hoy jueves por la noche llega al país Hernaldo
Zúñiga y dos técnicos del grupo Kumbia Kings para
participar en el concierto de inauguración de la concha acústica,
ubicada frente a la Plaza de la Fe, el sábado a partir de las 6:00
p.m.
Agregó que en esta ocasión los artistas
no hicieron exigencias exóticas. “Nos dieron bateo libre, lo único
que pidieron es agua embotellada de cualquier marca”.
ARTISTAS NACIONALES
“Calculamos que cada artista tendrá un espacio de hora y media. Será un evento muy lindo para los nicaragüenses”, dijo el coordinador. Los personajes de la música abandonarán
el país el domingo y sólo una parte de técnicos se
quedará hasta el lunes por motivo de espacio en las aerolíneas.
¡Nos vemos en La concha acústica!
Sobre La concha acústica Creada por el norteamericano Glen Howard Small, La concha acústica no fue diseñada sólo para que la admiren, sino que pretende convertirse en un espacio cultural. La concha, de 75 pies, ubicada entre el lago Xolotlán y la Plaza Juan Pablo II, servirá para que los nicaragüenses desarrollen las actividades que deseen: conciertos de rock, discursos, reuniones, festivales, etc. Howard Small aseguró que se inspiró en la belleza tropical para diseñarla. “Me gustan las formas sensuales del trópico y Nicaragua me cautivó y decidí diseñar la concha inspirado en las ondas y el movimiento del trópico”. La construcción de La Concha acústica empezó en noviembre de 2003 y se terminó a finales de 2004. La corriente estilística de arquitectura que marca los trabajos de Small es la orgánico-expresionista; a parte de utilizar los movimientos de la naturaleza como forma del objeto, les agrega un valor de utilidad. En el proyecto de La concha acústica participaron
poco más de 300 trabajadores y el costo fue de 850 mil dólares,
dijo a VARIEDADES Glen Howard Small.
Fundación «William Ramírez» en acción
Un monumento a don Enrique Gottel, fundador del periodismo
moderno nicaragüense, se levantará en el centro
de la Rotonda del Periodista según el proyecto presentado
por la Fundación Periodismo y Cultura «William Ramírez»
(FPC), ante la Comuna de Managua.
Junto al monumento del señor Gottel, fundador en 1864 de «El Porvenir de Nicaragua», figurará don Fabio Carnevalini, quien a la muerte de don Enrique, en 1875, continuó su obra para hacer de ese periódico el más estable, duradero y de más amplia circulación en el país. A mediano plazo se colocarán alrededor de la Rotonda bustos o placas que honren la memoria de nuestros más preclaros periodistas, recordatorios que se prolongarán por el futuro Boulevard de los Periodistas que unirá la Rotonda con la Pista Suburbana. Para la realización del monumento a Gottel y Carnevalini, además del apoyo decidido de la Alcaldía, la Fundación «FPC William Ramírez» visitó recientemente al Embajador de Alemania, doctor Hans Petersmann que se mostró muy receptivo al conocer que un alemán como el señor Gottel era el fundador del moderno periodismo nicaragüense.
La primera piedra del monumento, y por ende del Memorial, será
colocada el 8 de septiembre, Día Internacional del Periodista. Los
primeros memoriales estarán dedicados a los periodistas Juan Ramón
Avilés, fundador del diario «La Noticia» (1916) y Pedro
Joaquín Chamorro Zelaya, de «La Prensa»1926). 22 de
Agosto de 2003 | El Nuevo Diario,
Nicaragua: 1999. Recently, Small returned to Nicaragua to embark on another series of government and indepently financed projects, including hotels, monuments, and an amphitheater. 1985; Small's work in Nicaragua began when Nicaragua's Minister of Tourism offered him the enormous opportunity to design a hotel addition to the Hotel Intercontinental as well as a convention center. Small moved down to Nicaragua to tackle the capital's architectural disarray. Though originally had more environmentally-conscious designs in mind for the earthquake-riddled city, he designed a terraced addition to the hotel with ponds and landscapes. He described it as "rhythmic sweeping drama", because of the undulating transition of the building into Lake Managua. The actualization of all these projects was halted due to political upheaval in the country. , 1985; Small's work in Nicaragua began when Nicaragua's
Minister of Tourism offered him the enormous opportunity to design a hotel
addition to the Hotel Intercontinental as well as a convention center.
Small moved down to Nicaragua to tackle the capital's architectural disarray.
Though originally had more environmentally-conscious designs in mind for
the earthquake-riddled city, he designed a terraced addition to the hotel
with ponds and landscapes. He described it as "rhythmic sweeping drama",
because of the undulating transition of the building into Lake Managua.
The actualization of all these projects was halted due to political upheaval
in the country.
. Nicaragua: 1999. Recently, Small returned to Nicaragua to embark on another series of government and indepently financed projects, including hotels, monuments, and an amphitheater. 1985; Small's work in Nicaragua began when Nicaragua's Minister of Tourism offered him the enormous opportunity to design a hotel addition to the Hotel Intercontinental as well as a convention center. Small moved down to Nicaragua to tackle the capital's architectural disarray. Though originally had more environmentally-conscious designs in mind for the earthquake-riddled city, he designed a terraced addition to the hotel with ponds and landscapes. He described it as "rhythmic sweeping drama", because of the undulating transition of the building into Lake Managua. The actualization of all these projects was halted due to political upheaval in the country. When long-estranged father, dreamer and visionary
architect, Glen Small bequeaths his daughter the task of writing his biography,
she answers instead with an irreverent film about his unstable career and
rocky private life - while he is still alive.
Her father has always called himself a genius;
Lucia Small wonders if he isn't just suffering from an overblown ego. My
Father, The Genius explores the precarious framework on which a career
and family are built. How does a man dedicate his entire life to "saving
the world through architecture," yet cause so much damage at home?
Interviews with the brash, outrageous, Glen Howard
Small are juxtaposed with comments from his peers and former students,
his clients, daughters, ex-wives and girlfriends. Framed by startling models
of his work, the film provides an insight into the largely abandoned ideals
of the 70's, the birthplace of the gender wars, and the generation that
emerged.
At 31, Glen Small was a rising star. At 61, he
barely escapes financial ruin. The current drama is revealed: what happens
toward the end of a dreamer's life when his dreams are still unfulfilled?
Where and when will his statement of architectural genius finally be made
- now or never?
Director's Statement
When my long estranged father called to tell me:
"Lucia, I've written you into my will," I was not sure how to respond.
For as long as I can remember, Glen Howard Small, futuristic architect,
has never planned for his future. He has always been broke or on the verge
of it. He says it is because he is "true to his vision - a vision the world
isn't ready for." He continued, "I'm leaving you all my drawings and models
- the Biomorphic Biosphere, Turf Town, the Green Machine. If I can't do
it before I die, I want you to write a book about my work."
Quickly, I tried to assess whether this was an
honor or a curse. I questioned whether or not I could live up to the challenge.
Did I even want to? I naively offered to make a film instead - while he
was still alive. Only after the conversation ended did I realize the implications
of what I had suggested. I wondered how I could make a movie about a little-known
visionary architect and, more importantly, why I would choose to venture
down the treacherous path of examining my father's l ife - hadn't I already
spent enough on therapy?
I immediately realized that the film I wanted
to make differed from that which my father had envisioned. Did he really
expect me to be objective? Dad wanted a retrospective of his professional
achievements, while I wanted to focus on all aspects of his life, including
those that affected my family, his second family, and the girlfriends that
followed. He ultimately agreed, as long as I "got the work down."
I have struggled to remain true to my own vision,
battling the notion of what my father deems "important" for the film. Ten
years later, older and a bit wiser, I see that I've been able to stand
my ground, and Dad seems to like the film. But that didn't prevent him
from recently rewriting his will, bequeathing the biographer's job to all
of his children.
Documentary
My Father, The Genius is told in a personal voice,
through the filmmaker's point of view. Over the course of four years, Lucia
Small travels from her East Coast home to her father's various West Coast
dwellings in order to track the course of his present-day professional
and personal struggles. During this time, she probes him about his past
and a life of which she barely knows. As the filmmaker sets out on this
deeply personal journey, three main stories emerge.
First is the story of the eccentric architect,
the outsider. At thirty years old, Glen Howard Small was a rising star.
His designs decorated the covers of magazines; he was a guest on radio
and television; he was teaching at the Southern California Institute of
Architecture (SCI-Arc), a prestigious architectural school that he helped
found. His trademark and most impassioned design, the Biomorphic Biosphere
Megastructure (BBM), the mile-high, self-sustaining city that he envisioned
transforming the Los Angeles basin into an ecological paradise, was all
part of his crusade to save the world through architecture. In an effort
to understand this work, the filmmaker studies the designs and models that
have consumed her father his entire life. How would his designs change
our world? Are they viable? Architect John Johansen comments: "He's embracing
growing things and the forms that they propose. That’s the important value
of his work...his investigations and his research and his visions in biomorphic
architecture." By the mid '80s, however, Glen Small's career trajectory
had flattened out and he and his ecological concerns had faded into obscurity.
Lucia Small follows her father throughout his day, speaks with architectural
peers, and pours through past articles and archival footage in an effort
to find out what went wrong. Why, if her father's ideas were so celebrated
then, are they now so easily dismissed?
True, only a select group of architects have gained
any recognition for their innovative reimagining of urban systems - Paolo
Soleri and his Arcology, Peter Cook and the several architects of Archigram,
and Buckminster Fuller. Glen Small's designs, such as the BBM, the Green
Machine, and Turf Town, all had similar societal, ethical, and environmental
concerns as the basis for their design, yet they remain only as drafts
in his studio, and small blips within the media radar screen. Even in comparison
to those ecological designs that did receive world-wide acclaim and recognition
- for example, Soleri's idealistic urban vision of Arcosanti - Small's
designs addressed more systematic problems. In the film, Jan Mardian, interior
designer and former student of Small's, describes the Biomorphic Biosphere:
"It's an ecosystem. There's not an ecosystem in Soleri's work. I mean,
there is solar (power) ... [ but Soleri] doesn’t take everything into account,
and [the BBM] is a much more sophisticated work."
The story takes a dramatic turn when the filmmaker
stumbles upon footage from a 1976 panel on "the future of architecture"
at which Small accuses all the panelists, including Charles Moore and such
present-day luminaries as Frank Gehry, of not being concerned or qualified
to speak about the future. Was Small justified? Milica Dedijer, architect
and former SCI-Arc Faculty member remarks: "I always felt that Glen was
a messenger of something profound." Was he a misunderstood herald or was
he simply blind to the professional consequences of his behavior? In 1990,
after seventeen years of teaching architecture at SCI-Arc, Glen Small is
fired, follows with a law-suit against the school, and ultimately loses.
Was his demise a result of political infighting or just his brash, outspoken
nature? Or was he simply out of step with the times? As Lucia tries to
get to the bottom of what happened with her father's career, she starts
to realize that his rocky personal life had an even greater impact on his
professional path than she initially suspected.
As these pieces begin to fall into place, painting
the portrait of a man who is as conflicted in his professional life as
he is with his family, the filmmaker must also face the facts about her
father - an "only-on-Sundays, late-with-the-$50-child support, can't-really-be-bothered-with-family
Dad." Glen Small's life parallels the story of many men who left their
families in search of free love in the '70s; this is a story of the consequences
of such a search. No one, not Lucia's father, her mother, nor any of their
children, was prepared for the long-term emotional fallout that would follow
the couple's divorce.
Lucia Small finally has the courage to ask her
father some tough questions. These questions test both father and daughter,
forcing Lucia to look at her relationship with her father in a new light
and address his problematic attitude toward woman and relationships. She
must face up to his ego as it relates to women, and ultimately, herself.
Can she do it? This is a man who has been surrounded by women all his life
- a loving mother, a sister, two wives, four daughters, a number of girlfriends
- and he managed to let many of them down in some vital way. Should the
filmmaker expect anything different from her father when they explore the
pattern of missed opportunities and scarred psyches? What is to keep her
father from dismissing such a discussion, running away yet again in the
face of responsibility?
Her father does not run, and faces his daughter's
questions. What made him leave? Does he think he was irresponsible? Does
he recognize how his negative attitudes toward women effect his four daughters,
trickle down to his only son, and renew the cycle of lost relationships?
How could he design and dedicate his life to building an environmental
paradise, yet fall so short in his home environment? As Glen Small chased
these architectural dreams, his two families were left reeling in his wake.
As his oldest daughter, Christine, sums up her father: "He's got a good
heart with the inability to focus on people that are important." With each
question, the filmmaker fine-tunes the focus for her father, her family,
and the audience; each new question opens up avenues of discussion within
her family that had been closed for years, revealing a strange mixture
of pain, anger, and admiration for Glen Howard Small. Through this process,
the daughter's artistic vision ultimately finds its place.
Finally, the story of the current drama is revealed:
What happens toward the end of a dreamer's life when his dreams are still
unfulfilled? What happens to those he loves? Glen Small has recently turned
sixty-three, and his career has been stalled for fifteen years. Surviving
financially on what he refers to as "yuppie projects", he feels wasted
in the "real world". After a series of mismanaged projects, and several
failed attempts at finding a teaching position, he finds himself needing
to stay with his eldest daughter, Christine. At the end of his rope, he
decides his last hope is to sell his final piece of property in Los Angeles
and set a new course. Determined to construct his "billboard to the world"
on a parcel of land he purchased in Oregon, Small is sidetracked when he
is commissioned to design multiple projects for a developer in Nicaragua.
Is this the opportunity Small needs to spotlight his creativity, a chance
to save face? Where and when will his statement of architectural genius
finally be made — Oregon or Nicaragua; now or never? How does the filmmaker's
new understanding of her father, their family, and the merit of his work,
play out? Only time will tell, as Lucia Small follows her father in his
last ditch efforts to realize his dreams.
My Father, The Genius is the story of a father
and daughter who hardly know each other. It is a look at what drives them
apart and may eventually bring them back together again. It explores what
happens when you suddenly start seeing yourself in your parents, and, finally,
are called to task to examine what you see.
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