Allan Temko
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Allan B. Temko | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | January 25, 2006 | (aged 81)
Education | |
Spouse | Becky (1950–1996, her death) |
Children | 2 |
Allan Bernard Temko (February 4, 1924 – January 25, 2006) was an architectural critic and writer based in San Francisco.
History
Born in New York City and raised in
Following Finnish-born architect
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's Pier 39 project which began, "Corn. Kitsch. Schlock. Honky-tonk. Dreck. Schmaltz. Merde."[1]
Temko was instrumental in the removal of the
He described the City Center Building in Hayward in the early 1970s, calling it a "toaster", due to its slightly elongated rectangular shape, which strongly influenced public opinion of the building.
Temko, who met Jack Kerouac when they were both undergraduates at Columbia, appears in Kerouac's novel On the Road as the model for the character "Roland Major".[1] Temko also appeared in Kerouac's Book of Dreams as Irving Minko and in Visions of Cody as Allen Minko.[3]
He called for an international design competition for the
Temko was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1990. He died of apparent congestive heart failure at the Orinda Convalescent Hospital in Orinda, California, in 2006.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e Taylor, Michael; King, John (26 January 2006). "Allan Temko - architecture watchdog". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
- ^ "Chinatown Demands Highway Repair". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. AP. 17 April 1990. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
- ^ Moore, Dave. "Character Key to the Duluoz Legend". Beat Book Covers.
- ^ Temko, Allan (23 June 1998). "COMMENTARY: Hold On — We Can Do Better by the Bridge". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 6 February 2015.