Glen Small

I watched this documentary the other day with no knowledge of the guy, his work, or really what the thing was even about other than this guy was an architect. Turned out to be a really good movie. First of all, the guy had some awesome and very different and revolutionary ideas in the 60's. He was thinking about how to conserve space, conserve the environment, and integrate architecture into nature in an unobtrusive way. Some of his designs share similarities to some more famous guys like Frank Gehry (MoMA) and Santiago Calatrava (MAM) but they really stand on their own...as did the guy himself.

The movie ends up being as much about him and his architecture as it is about his family-life (or lack there of) and how such a "genius" has become forgotten and "wasted" as the architect himself puts it. The movie paints a picture of a man who was obsessed with changing architecture, obsessed with the perfection of his design, yet he let his desire to be in control destroy any possibility he had for making a real difference.

One part of the movie describes the man and his reason for failure fairly well. He is introducing some greats of architecture to his classroom of students for a panel discussion. But instead of announcing the names and leaving the floor to the architects, he introduces each by name and then mocks their "selling-out" their "fakeness" and their, in his mind, undeserved success...Even in a panel discussion with the men that ruled his profession, he couldn't stop himself from burning bridges.

It was a very good movie; a sobering story of talent wasted, a sobering look into the life of someone who always viewed himself and his ideas on an untouchable pedestal, only now realizing that he is the main reason for his perceived failure.

Check out some of his stuff:http://www.slideshare.net/glensmall/glen-howard-small-architect-innovator

His website:http://www.glenhowardsmallarchitect.com/

and the movie!