Kevin Roche Biography, Buildings and Best Books

Kevin Roche (1922-2019) was an Irish-born American architect and the fourth winner of the Pritzker Prize, in 1982. As Eero Saarinen’s principal design associate he saw the TWA Flight Center and Dulles Airport to completion after Saarinen’s death, and with John Dinkeloo he went on to design the Ford Foundation Building in New York, with its indoor garden, the Oakland Museum and the master plan of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Dublin, Chicago and Saarinen

Eamonn Kevin Roche was born in Dublin in 1922 and graduated from University College Dublin in 1945. He worked for Michael Scott, studied briefly under Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology and in 1950 joined Eero Saarinen and Associates in Michigan. He worked on the Miller House in Columbus, Indiana, the General Motors Technical Center and the TWA Flight Center, becoming Saarinen’s principal design associate.

Completing Saarinen’s work

When Saarinen died in 1961, Roche and John Dinkeloo completed ten major projects, among them the TWA terminal at Idlewild, Dulles International Airport and the Gateway Arch in St Louis. In 1966 they renamed the office Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates.

The Ford Foundation and after

The Ford Foundation Building in Manhattan (1968) wrapped offices around a twelve-storey glass atrium planted as a public garden. It was followed by the Oakland Museum of California, a terraced building with gardens on its roofs, the Knights of Columbus headquarters in New Haven, with its four brick towers, and the long series of extensions to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Recognition

Roche received the Pritzker Prize in 1982 and the AIA Gold Medal in 1993. His office continued to build corporate headquarters, museums and the Convention Centre Dublin (2010). He died in Guilford, Connecticut, in 2019.