FIVE DAYS BEFORE I WAS TO TEACH SPRING SEMESTER AT THE ACADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY, COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, IN SAN FRANCISCO, WHERE I HAVE TAUGHT WITH EXCELLENT RESULTS FOR A YEAR, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY TERMINATED MY TEACHING AT THE ACADEMY...THE BOTTOM LINE IS I NEED A TEACHING JOB, CONSULTING JOB, OR OFFICE JOB IMMEDIATELY. Small at Large
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Glen,, you are just too much the wild man to teach at such a corporate cookie cutter academy. The students loved your approach but the administration got worried that the investors' bankrolling the school would get some idea of what you were about... and teaching. They got cold feet. You were too hot for your own good.
Your blend of bio-morphic architecture and Reich influenced nature-freedom-sexual politics just frightens most people and see you as a threat. Most of all your 'nature as client' bias is too radical for typical private property based architectural servicing. Yours is Anti-Oedipus manifested before it became fashionable. And you never assumed that architects should service their developer clients like a prostitute servicing a john. Your work seems to find fulfillment best within revolutionary societies.
Like Hannes Meyer...Small is a revolutionary architect who is not at all a 'lacky' of capitalism like in the famous Hannes Meyer quote, (look it up) And yes SCI-arc needs another Glen Small to wake the school out of complacency too.
eric chavkin
YOU'RE A LITTLE LATE TO THE PARTY, GLEN.
join the club
I respect Small's work. I understand and empathize that he's gotten the shit end of the stick many, many times in his career (seriously, being told 5 days before you start work that it's not gonna happen? That's awful.).
But saying "I would be wasted at Home Depot" while it may be true is also obnoxious and delusional. If you have to feed and house your family, you find work doing anything at all and if that means putting your bigger personal goals aside for awhile then so be it. I know many architects right now who are working, yes, at Home Depot, and FedEx, and waiting tables, and doing brute physical labor on construction sites. I respect the hell out of those people for doing what needs to be done - not that my opinion matters one bit.
Then again, maybe that attitude is what makes an artist. I'm definitely not one.
i am not necessarily supportive of glen publicly asking donations (strategically i think the timing and atmosphere is wrong for it.) but realizing that he is 73 y.o. effectively shots up the possibility beginner level menial jobs for him.
glen is an architect and professor of architecture with exceptional body of work. he has been doing architecture ahead of it's time and similar work is being passed around by much younger people as ground breaking work 'currently.'
he is a great teacher. i have seen people with important architectural positions come up to him and say he was one of the greatest moments in their learning experience as students.
is he arrogant? yes and no if he is, never to his students.
is he obnoxious and delusional? you bet, just like many creative people. but he is still a lot of fun.
is his teaching and work still relevant? strong yes and yes.
is he politically correct? n/a.
if i was in a position to hire him as a professor, would i? immediately, while he can still teach with excitement. students would greatly benefit from his teaching specially today.
has he any other skills other than being an architect, designer and teacher? not that i know of and i know him for over thirty years.
Well 73 does put a different spin on a McJob, for sure. I didn't realize he was that age. Good lord we really live in a country where people in their 70s can't have some kind of public support? Shameful.
SHOULD BE A LESSON TO US ALL TO START SAVING WITH AN IRA TODAY.
Glen had safety net of a sort.
The six original and founding members of SCI-ARC, which included Glen Small, had an agreement with the school that promised lifetime employment. After founder Ray Kappe resigned the new dean Michael Rotondi fired Glen and the others. They sued in court. Court decided in favor of SCI-Arc and not the dismissed group of SCI-arc teachers, including Glen.
Its all in the film MY FATHER THE GENIUS
eric chavkin
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I remember that from the film, Eric. Like I said, Glen has gotten f*cked many times by institutions.
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