- Allan Temko
Allan Bernard Temko (
1924 -January 25 ,2006 ) was aPulitzer Prize -winning architectural critic and writer based inSan Francisco .Graduating from
Columbia University in 1947, Temko taught for seven years in France and produced a landmark book about Notre Dame. Temko began writing for the "San Francisco Chronicle " in 1961. He also taughtcity planning atUniversity of California, Berkeley and elsewhere.Temko was an activist critic who defended the urban character and texture of San Francisco from, in his words, "a variety of villains: real estate sharks, the construction industry and its unions, venal politicians, bureaucrats, brutal highway engineers, the automobile lobby, and -- in some ways worst of all -- incompetent architects and invertebrate planners who were wrecking the Bay Area before our eyes." One of these villains, an architect named
Sandy Walker , famously sued Temko over his 1978 description of Walker'sPier 39 project which began, "Corn. Kitsch. Schlock. Honky-tonk. Dreck. Schmaltz. Merde."Temko was instrumental in the removal of the
Embarcadero Freeway and memorably described the 1971Armand Vaillancourt Fountain on the Embarcadero as a thing "deposited by a concrete dog with square intestines."He also made a comment about the
Hayward City Center in the early 1970s calling it a toaster (due to its appearance) and in a tone for everyone to hate it.Temkoe was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1990. Temko appears inJack Kerouac 's novel "On the Road " as the character "Roland Major". Temko also appeared in Kerouac's "Book of Dreams " as Irving Minko and in "Visions of Cody " as Allen Minko.External links
* [http://www.archpaper.com/news/01_26_06_tempko.html Obituary and interview]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/27/arts/design/27temko.html?_r=1 New York Times obituary]
* [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/26/BAG0NGT5GJ1.DTL&type=printable San Francisco Chronicle obituary]
* [http://www.virtualemotion.com/gal2.aspx?language_id=2&n=628 Armand Vaillancourt Fountain 360 image (JAVA)]
* [http://www.virtualemotion.com/fullquicktime.aspx?language_id=2&n=627 Armand Vaillancourt Fountain 360 image (QTVR Full screen)]
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