Roche << rohsh >> , Kevin (1922-2019), was an Irish-born American architect. Many of his best-known projects were designed in partnership with the American architect John Dinkeloo from 1966 until Dinkeloo’s death in 1981. Their buildings are known for elegance and simplicity, and for the integration of the building with the surrounding landscape. Several of their buildings feature an enclosed garden courtyard. In 1982, Roche was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious international award in architecture. The Pritzker Prize jury praised Roche as “an innovator who does not worship innovation for itself.”
Eamonn Kevin Roche was born on June 14, 1922, in Dublin, Ireland. He studied at the National University of Ireland in Dublin from 1940 to 1945. He moved to the United States in 1948 and studied under German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago in 1948 and 1949. Roche became a U.S. citizen in 1964.
Roche joined the practice of the Finnish-born American architect Eero Saarinen in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 1950. Under Saarinen’s influence, Roche learned to approach each project by seeking a final form that was unique, never blindly following the trends of the day. In Bloomfield Hills, Roche met Dinkeloo. After Saarinen’s death in 1961, Roche supervised the completion of 10 of Saarinen’s most important projects, including the CBS Headquarters (1962) and the TWA Terminal (1964) at JFK International Airport, both in New York City, and the Gateway Arch (1965) in St. Louis, Missouri.
The first major Roche-Dinkeloo design was the Oakland Museum, completed in Oakland, California, in 1968. Perhaps the best-known early Roche-Dinkeloo project is the headquarters for the Ford Foundation in New York City. Completed in 1967, the project consists of two 12-story office towers enclosing a soaring garden courtyard. Another significant project was the Knights of Columbus headquarters (1969) in New Haven, Connecticut. Roche and Dinkeloo designed several corporate buildings, such as the Union Carbide World Headquarters in Danbury, Connecticut, and the General Foods Corporation Headquarters in Rye, New York (both completed in 1982).
The partnership also handled extensions and renovations. They designed the renovation and expansion of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1967-1985) and the extensive renovation of the Central Park Zoo (1988), both in New York City. Roche died on March 1, 2019.
