Relevant Projects in Manuel Delgado’s career:

RE-INTEGRACION NATURAL Y SOCIAL DE CARACAS.

Public Contest to Transform La Carlota Air Base into a Green Park, Caracas,
Venezuela
Two-Phased, International Competitions of Ideas and one winning team:
Manuel E. Delgado, Boston/Caracas, Jorge Perez Jaramillo, Medellin, OPUS, Medellin

In November 2012, our team was sellected as the winer of the two-phase
competition organized by The Mayor of Caracas to transform the old private airport,
into a new “Metropolitan Green Park”. “Natural and Social Re-integration” is an
intend to re-stablish the natural conditions that blessed this valley. This urban
proposal will transform the 103-hectare military air base, into a system of Parks,
integrating La Carlota with three existig parks: the very appreciated Parque del Este,
designed by Burle Marx, the Museo del Transporte and the Parque Miranda,
dedicated to sport venues restoring the natural and urban elements that were once
part of the site. The proposal takes into consideration the ecosystem and
biodiversity of the intrincate river system that flows from the Avila Mountains down
to the restored Güaire River, re-establish floodplains that will be used for
recreational and educational activities. The existence of the airport and the runway
in such a central location allowed us, 70 years latter to count with the best location
for a park. The only way to make this project feasible is by creating a city-wide
agreement among the different stakeholders, minorities and majorities, neighbors
and private entrepreneurs, academic institutions and cultural groups, national and
international non-profit organization, local municipalities and Metropolitan
authorities, to save the city and exercise democracy in Venezuela. From the Greeks
we learned that life in the city and its public space are the essential for democracy,
which is more about the process that about the results. Democracy is not a value
that we inherit, it is a right we have to fight for… Let’s earn this democracy together
with the Ágora as a symbol.
Aerial Photo San Agustín del Sur, Caracas – Nicolas Rocco, Published in Caracas Cenital,
Archivo Fotografia Urbana, 2005

SAN AGUSTÍN DISTRICT MASTER PLAN, BOULEVARD AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS

Centro Simón Bolívar C.A., Caracas, Beltrán Alfaro, Project Manager; Manuel
Delgado, Urban Designer and Chief Architect, 1984-87
La Franja (The Strip) is a 1.800 feet continuous building, located between two very
dense areas: San Agustin del Norte and San Agustin del Sur, in a narrow piece of land
between the Fajardo Highway and Avenida Ruiz Pineda. For many years the Stripe
was the back of the neighborhood, a very dangerous zone occupied by invaded old
warehouses. The Project intended to clear the area, provide community services and
open space for recreation; a program desperatly needed for the poor communities
living in San Agustin South. At the same time, the enclosure of The Strip potected
the area from the extreme noice and polution of the highway, raising pedestrian
movement at a different level connecting the uper deck to the north, the center of
Caracas and the Metro System. The design proces started with the community
participating every Saturday in open forums in the center of the barrios, to define
the areas and the tipe o services they needed. As the Communities are capable of
building their own housing, all we needed was to provide the services. At the end of
the community proces came out with the following program: Boulevard and open
Space, Comercial Space, Elementary School, Police Local Headquarters,
Neighborhood Library, Basketball Court, Lockers and Bathrooms (connected with
the Basketball Court), Parrish Church and Food Market, never built, beause the lot
was taken for the National Police Headquarters. Unfortunatelly, the project was not
finished and the continuity and the connections with the North were never
achieved.
Aerial Photo Abadia Benedictina, Güigüe – Nicolas Rocco, Published in Valencia Cenital,
Archivo Fotografia Urbana, 2006

BENEDICTINE ABBEY OF SAN JOSÉ, Güigüe, Edo Carabobo, Venezuela

Pre-Project, collaboration with Jesús Tenreiro Architect, between 1974-84.

After a year of post-graduate studies in Mexico City, Manuel Delgado returned to

Caracas and worked as Project Designer in the office of Jesús Tenreiro, probably the
most talented Venezuelan architect from his generation, who had been his Thesis
Advisor in the UCV. Manuel participated with Jesus very close in a continous
dialog during the preliminary phases of the project, from the selection of the site,
to the program definition and the building concept. His work in the office and his
participation in the projet ended sudenly after the the official presentation of the
Pre-Project to the Monks, the Caracas Archibishop and the Archiabbot from St
Ottilien, for approbal in 1984.

The proces started twelve years earlier, when three architecture students Lisette
Ávila, Mariela Provenzali and Manuel, proposed to develop a Benedictine
Monastery as their undergrad thesis. They contacted the Monks, looking for
advise, and found Father Otto Lohrner, who recently arrived from Oberbayem,
Germany with other young monks and was studying psichology in the same
university. Otto imediatelly became friend and member of the thesis team. Latter,
he was named Prior and the first Abad in Güigüe and as a “frustrated architect”,
participated in all the phases of the project until its inauguration.

The detailed project and construction documents continued in Tenreiro’s Office

between 1984-86 and the construction lasted until 1990 , when the Abbey was
officialli inaugurated; The Project Designer responsible for the details and
construction was Ana Diaz de Tenreiro, who hand by hand with her husband Jesús
deserves the credits for the quality of the work and her devotion to this building. In
summary, the Abbey was a team work where several architects and students
participated. Jesús Tenreiro was a good disciple of Lou Kahn, even in the design
method. In an interview with Marshall Meyers, the architect who completed the
British Art Museum in Yale, responding to a question about Kahn, said: “He never
worked alone, he couldn’t. He nedded to talk with someone all the time, he needed
a dialogue. Especially in the early stages of a project, Lou worked best with another
person. He said if I talk to many people it is a performance, while if I talk to one
person it may perhaps be an event.”1

1
Wendy Lesser: You Say to Brick, The Life of Louis Kahn. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York,
2018(page. 269)