Tribute to Paul Koralek

Catherine Croft, Director of the Twentieth Century Society, pays tribute to Paul Koralek who died last week, aged 86.

Catherine Croft, said: “Paul was a partner in one of the most distinguished post war architectural practices in the UK.  It was his competition winning scheme for a new library at Trinity College Dublin in 1961 which enabled the formation of the firm, Ahrends, Burton and Koralek (ABK) and the success of that masterpiece was followed by a roster of carefully considered and beautifully detailed projects including new accommodation for Keble College Oxford and a Sainsbury’s in Kent.

It was their scheme for the national gallery which Prince Charles derided as a ‘monstrous carbuncle’ – a very undeserved slight which no doubt meant that we have fewer of their fine buildings in the UK today than we should have had.”

The work of ABK is the subject of a book commissioned as part of a series of books on Twentieth Century Architects by RIBA Publishing, English Heritage and the Twentieth Century Society.

Buy Ahrends, Burton and Koralek by Kenneth Powell