Dimitrije T. Leko
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Dimitrije T. Leko (born January 22, 1863 in Belgrade, Serbia, died September 24, 1914 in Kragujevac, Serbia) was a renowned Serbian architect and urbanist. He has spent most of his life outside Serbia – he had finished high school in Winterthur, before studying architecture at the universities in Zürich, Aachen and Munich. After getting back to Belgrade, at the end of the 19th century, he tried to implement the model of contemporary urbanism of Western Europe in Belgrade. He has projected some of the most important and technically perfected buildings in Belgrade of his time, such as Belgrade Meteorological Station in 1891, The Vučo Family House on Slavija Square in 1893 (the first McDonald's restaurant in Eastern Europe was opened in this house March 24, 1988[1]), The Military Academy in Nemanjina Street in 1899, The Athens Palace on the Terazije Square in 1902, Đorđe Vučo's House Upon Sava River in the Karađorđeva Street in 1908, the school buildings in Makenzijeva Street and Gavrila Principa Street and many other structures and villas.[2] Several of his works were financed by one of the wealthiest merchants in Belgrade at the end of the 19th century, Đorđe Vučo.
Leko was also a very active critic of the urban development of Belgrade. He got the first prizes on the open competitions for the regulation of Terazije Square, Little Kalemegdan and the city of Skopje. Yet, these projects were never fully realized. He was often labeled as "too provocative" and "revolutionary" in his criticism of the urbanism in Belgrade, and some of the problems he was pointing at, such as the problem of the regulation of the Terazije Terrace and the Sava banks, still remain unsolved.[3]
His brother, Marko Leko, was a renowned chemist.
