san nielsen bio
San is Danish by birth, but moved to the US when he was nine. Two or so years later he traded the protection of the stars and stripes for the progressive sounds of the Union Jack, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. After a few years of British secondary school, 1965 saw San following his family back to President Johnson’s US and the beautiful state of Vermont, which offered up pristine prep-school surroundings of nature and history for his remaining High School year’s pleasure.
After a brief flirtation with a history major at Lyndon State College, newly elected President Nixon indirectly convinced San that it would be prudent to join the US Navy rather than potentially face the ‘draft man’ after a possible scholastic fumble at Lyndon State.
So…after enduring four years of rough seas at the pleasure of Uncle Sam whilst soaking up experience as an electrician, San was, in early 1973, again under-way seeking out new horizons…albeit full circle to the ‘home country’ aspiring for admission to the Architectural department of the Danish Royal Academy of Art.
Copenhagen’s Academy of Art, which mainly comprised the school of Architecture, was located on the ‘King’s New Square’ adjacent to the colourful district of ‘New Harbor’, which is famous for it’s bars, Tattoo parlors and ladies of the night, not necessarily in that order, all very neatly wrapped in typically Danish risqué respectability…Five years immersed in this fertile crescent of art, design inspiration, and architectural history culminated in 1980 with a Masters in Architecture and a license to create! Unfortunately the global recession brought on by the oil crises of ‘73’ had caused serious decline in the possible pursuits of newborn architects.
Mr. Nielsen’s first employment with the City of Copenhagen’s department of Architecture involved him mainly with the refurbishment of institutional architecture, not the least of which was the confectionary delights of the local bakery.
Nine months of city architecture and Danish pastry found San looking longingly towards new horizons and a long walk. At the same time, San’s cousin had recently joined the Danish Red Cross where he’d learned that the project he was soon to be associated with in Uganda was in urgent need of a Technical Advisor. This advisor required knowledge and experience in mechanics, electricity and building…two weeks from his first interview San found himself on a plane heading for Entebbe/ Kampala in Uganda.
This gentle introduction to scenic Africa of late 1983 was an eighteen month contract, which, after an invitation by the local Mt. Elgon police and defense force to join them on an investigation of a local skirmish area of burnt villages and destitute locals, found San and other team members leaving for Nairobi, Kenya with one way tickets return to Denmark after only six months of fresh fruit, healthy living and far-away horizons.
What remained of 1984 and early ‘85’ slid by with dark and quiet months of computer school including daydreams of shimmering Acacias silhouetted against an orange-red sundown accompanied by the rare sound of ice cubes emanating from the revered but requisite ‘sundowner’. Ironically, San’s cousin would again break the doldrums of despair, this time with an invitation to visit the rapidly developing Gaborone, capital of Botswana, with a view of course to finding employment as an architect.
September 16, 1985 San arrived in Gaborone via Harare, capital Zimbabwe. The 16th was a Monday and by Thursday San was employed by Architectural and Planning Studio, a South African little sister to the large well established Osmond Lang of South Africa.
In October 1989 NN Design was incorporated and San was on his own, well, he persuaded Mr. P Neumann, the second “N” in NN Design to join him. Peter was still working for ‘APS’ at the time…
One of NN Design’s early projects was sub-contracted supervision from KMM Architects, who had a large commission refurbishing senior secondary school for the government of Botswana. In June 1992, after a whirlwind three years of projects large and small, San & Peter bought KMM Architects from Mr. K Mandic, who had been appointed the new managing director of BHC, Botswana Housing Corporation.
Early 1994 saw Peter and San through an amicable divorce as Peter & wife wanted to start a restaurant. Kokan Mandic, previous owner of KMM Architects had battled with the government of Botswana after ONE day on the throne of the Botswana Housing Corporation. So San offered Kokan a seat at KMM, where he stayed until 2001 whereupon he and new wife returned to their beloved Belgrade…after the smoke had cleared!
As Botswana matures, new methods have been developed for winning work. Consequently, in 2003 San localized the shareholding of KMM in an attempt to retain some form of competitive edge. Well, the edge has dulled and the ‘sundowners’ are not such sweet music as they once were.
However, fertile fields over new horizons are still being cleared to receive our creative seeds…my bags are packed and I’m ready to go! Please let me know if my many years of architecture and design could be put to good use for your firm.
San Nielsen
Gaborone, Botswana
March, 2007
Nielsen Real Estate & Property Management - Serving New England, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine since 1982
Architect - Traveler - Adventurer - Family Man
botswana africa --•-- sunapee new hampshire --•-- kobenhavn denmark
site design by svend and san, copyright 2007
