Kevin Roche

Eamonn Kevin Roche (June 14, 1922 – March 1, 2019) was an American Pritzker Prize-winning architect. Kevin Roche was the archetypal modernist and "member of an elite group of third generation modernist architects — James Stirling, Jørn Utzon, and Robert Venturi — and is considered to be the most logical and systematic designer of the group. He and his partner John Dinkeloo of the firm KRJDA produced over a half-century of matchless creativity."

Roche and Dinkeloo were responsible for the design/master planning of over 200 built projects in both the U.S. and abroad. These projects include eight museums, 38 corporate headquarters, seven research facilities, performing arts centers, theaters, and campus buildings for six universities. In 1967 he created the master plan for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and thereafter designed all of the new wings and installation of many collections, including the reopened American and Islamic wings.

Born in Dublin and a graduate from University College Dublin, Roche went to the United States to study with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology. In the U.S., he became the principal designer for Eero Saarinen and opened his own architectural firm in 1966.

Among other awards, Roche received the Pritzker in 1982, the Gold Medal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1990, and the AIA Gold Medal in 1993.

Biography Early life

Roche was born in Dublin, Ireland, during one of the most tumultuous periods in Irish history: the Irish Civil War. Eamon Roche, Kevin's father, had been jailed twice for "revolutionary activities". Kevin was born during his father's second imprisonment. Though initially trained in German Beaux Arts, this gave way to modernism and post-modernism interests. After graduating from UCD in 1945, Roche made the circuit with practically every well-known modernist of architecture: Michael Scott in Dublin from 1945 to 1946, Maxwell Fry in London from summer to fall of 1946, then Mies van der Rohe and Ludwig Hilberseimer at Illinois Institute of Technology in 1948. His future partner, John Dinkeloo (1918-1991), joined the firm in 1951 after he had left the architectural form of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in Chicago. They became lifelong friends and business partners. There, Roche also met his future wife, Jane Claire Tuohy, with whom he eventually had five children. In 1954, he became the Principal Design Associate to Saarinen and assisted him on all projects from that time until Saarinen's death in September 1961.

Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates Later, Roche and Dinkeloo moved the practice to Hamden, Connecticut. Saarinen's firm morphed into Roche-Dinkeloo Associates or KRJDA. Today, the firm continues on as Roche Modern, where Roche's son, Eamon, is currently managing director. Thus, Roche and Dinkeloo laid the groundwork for the preeminent architectural firm which has been coined the "poster child architectural firm of corporate America".

In 1966, Roche and Dinkeloo formed Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates and completed Saarinen's projects. They completed twelve major unfinished Saarinen builds, including some of Saarinen's best-known work: the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the expressionistic TWA Flight Center at JFK International Airport in New York City, Dulles International Airport Main Terminal outside Washington, D.C., the strictly modern John Deere Headquarters in Moline, Illinois, and the CBS Headquarters building in New York City.

Following this, Roche and Dinkeloo's first major commission was the Oakland Museum of California, a complex for the art, natural history, and cultural history of California with a design featuring interrelated terraces and roof gardens. The city was planning a monumental building to house natural history, technology, and art, and Roche provided a unique concept: a building that is a series of low-level concrete structures covering a four block area, on three levels, the terrace of each level forming the roof of the one below, i.e. a museum (in three sections) with a park on its roof. This kind of innovative solution went on to become Roche's trademark.

This project was followed by the equally highly acclaimed Ford Foundation Building in New York City, considered the first large-scale architectural building in the U.S. to devote a substantial portion of its space to horticultural pursuits. Its famous atrium was designed with the notion of having urban green-space accessible to all and is an early example of the application of environmental psychology in architecture. The building was recognized in 1968 by Architectural Record as "a new kind of urban space".

The acclaim that greeted the Oakland Museum and Ford Foundation earned Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates a ranking at the top of their profession. Shortly afterward they began a 40-year association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, for which they did extensive remodeling and built many extensions to house new galleries including the one containing the Egyptian Temple of Dendur. Other high-profile commissions for the firm came from clients as varied as Wesleyan University, the United Nations, Cummins Engines, Union Carbide, The United States Post Office, and the Knights of Columbus.

In 1982, Kevin Roche became one of the first recipients of the Pritzker Prize, generally regarded as architecture's equivalent to the Nobel prize. Following this accolade, Roche's practice went global, receiving commissions for buildings in Paris, Madrid, Singapore, and Tokyo. He completed his first and only Irish project, The Convention Centre Dublin, in 2010.

Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates has designed numerous corporate headquarters, office buildings, banks, museums, art centers, and even part of the Bronx Zoo. Roche served as a trustee of the American Academy in Rome, president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a member of the National Academy of Design, and a member of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts.

Roche died on March 1, 2019, at his home in Guilford, Connecticut, aged 96.

Prizes and awards

The work of Kevin Roche has been the subject of special exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the Architectural Association of Ireland in Dublin, and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. A 2012 exhibition, Kevin Roche: Architecture as Environment, opened at the Yale School of Architecture in New Haven, Connecticut, and has been viewed at the Museum of the City of New York, the Building Museum in Washington, and the University of Toronto.

In addition to the Pritzker Prize, Roche was the recipient of numerous honors and awards including the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal Award for Architecture, and the French Academie d'Architecture Grand Gold Medal.

Film

A feature documentary called Kevin Roche: The Quiet Architect was released in 2017. It was directed by Irish filmmaker (and former architecture student) Mark Noonan.

Buildings

The Head Office for Bouygues SA Holding company received the "Haute Qualité Environnementale (HQE)", the highest certification for environmental quality in building design in France.

The continuous glass wall at Lucent Technologies in Nuremberg, Germany wraps around the complex to create a unified street facade.

1966 – Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California 1968 – The Ford Foundation Building, New York, New York 1969 – Administration, Student Union & Physical Education Buildings, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York 1969 – The Knights of Columbus Building Headquarters, New Haven, Connecticut 1969 – United States Post Office, Columbus, Indiana 1969 – Aetna Life and Casualty Company Computer Headquarters, Hartford, Connecticut 1971 – Power Center for the Performing Arts, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1972 – Cummins Inc. Irwin Office Building Arcade, Columbus, Indiana 1972 – New Haven Coliseum, New Haven, Connecticut (closed 2002, demolished 2007) 1973 – Center for the Arts, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut 1973 – Cummins Midrange Engine Plant, Columbus, Indiana 1974 – Fine Arts Center, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 1974 – Worcester County National Bank, Worcester, Massachusetts 1972 – The Pyramids, College Life Insurance Company of America headquarters, Indianapolis, Indiana 1975 - One United Nations Plaza New York, New York 1978 – John Deere World Headquarters, West Office Building, Moline, Illinois 1979 – Denver Performing Arts Complex, Denver, Colorado 1982 – The Corporate Center, Danbury, Connecticut (originally the Union Carbide Corporate Center) 1982 – Moudy Visual Arts and Communication Building, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas 1983 – Two United Nations Plaza, New York, New York 1983 – General Foods Corporate Headquarters, Ryebrook, New York 1983 – Cummins Corporate Office Building, Columbus, Indiana 1984 - Ravinia Complex, Atlanta, Georgia 1985 – Cummins Engine Company Corporate Headquarters, Columbus, Indiana 1985 – DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, Williamsburg, Virginia 1986 – Conoco Inc. Petroleum Headquarters, Houston, Texas 1987 - Three United Nations Plaza New York, New York (UNICEF Headquarters) 1988 – Central Park Zoo, New York, New York 1988 – Bouygues World Headquarters, Saint-Quentin-Yvelines, France 1989 – Leo Burnett Building Company Headquarters, Chicago, Illinois 1990 – 750 7th Avenue, New York, New York 1990 – Metropolitano Office Building, Madrid, Spain 1992 – J. P. Morgan Headquarters, New York, New York 1993 – Corning Incorporated Corporate Headquarters, Corning, New York 1993 – Merck & Co. Inc. Headquarters, Whitehouse Station, New Jersey 1993 – NationsBank Building (now Bank of America Plaza), Atlanta, Georgia 1993 – UC Santa Cruz Scotts Valley Center, Scotts Valley, California 1993 – Tanjong and Binariang Headquarters/Menara Maxis, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 1994 – Pontiac Marina Millenia Tower and Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Singapore 1995 – Dai-ichi Life Headquarters/ Norinchukin Bank Headquarters, DN Tower 21, Tokyo, Japan 1996 – Cummins Columbus Engine Plant Expansion, Columbus, Indiana 1997 – Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1997 – Shiodome City Center, Tokyo, Japan 1997 – Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for University Life/ Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, New York University, New York, New York 1997 – Lucent Technologies, Lisle, IL/Naperville, Illinois 1997 – Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York, New York 2000 – Ciudad Grupo Santander, Madrid, Spain 2001 – Securities and Exchange Commission Headquarters, Washington, D.C. 2002 – Bouygues SA Holding Company Headquarters, Paris, France 2003 – 1101 New York Avenue, Washington, D.C. 2003 – Renovation to Greek and Roman Court at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York 2005 – Lafayette Tower, Washington, D.C. 2007 – Renovation to American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York 2008 – Renovation to American Wing at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York 2009 – David S. Ingalls Rink Restoration and Addition, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 2010 – Convention Centre Dublin, Dublin, Ireland 2011 – Renovation to Islamic Wing at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York

Awards and honors Roche was the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including: Pritzker Prize Classical America's Arthur Ross Award Brendan Gill Prize of the Municipal Art Society of New York R. S. Reynolds Memorial Award New York State Award California Governor's Award for Excellence in Design Albert S. Bard First Honor Awards, City Club of New York Brandeis University Creative Arts Award in Architecture Brunner Award of the American Institute of Art and Letters New York Chapter American Institute of Architects Award

Honorary Degrees: Wesleyan University, Doctorate of Fine Arts National University of Ireland, Doctorate of Fine Arts Albertus Magnus College, Doctorate of Fine Arts Iona College, Doctorate of Fine Arts Yale University, Doctorate of Fine Arts