Kevin Roche

Kevin Roche
Born Eamonn Kevin Roche
(1922-06-14) June 14, 1922
Dublin, Ireland
Nationality Irish, American
Occupation Architect
Awards AIA Gold Medal
Twenty-five Year Award
American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medals
Pritzker Prize
Practice Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo & Associates
Buildings Convention Centre Dublin, Head Office for Bouygues, Lafayette Tower, Shiodome City Center, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Museum of Jewish Heritage, Santander Central Hispano, 1101 New York Avenue, Ford Foundation, John Deere World Headquarters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oakland Museum of California
Website Official Website for Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates

Eamonn Kevin Roche FAIA (born June 14, 1922) is an Irish-born American Pritzker Prize-winning architect. He has been responsible for the design/master planning for 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 since then has designed all of the new wings and installation of many collections including the recently reopened American[1] and Islamic wings.

Among other awards, Roche received the Pritzker Prize in 1982,[2] the Gold Medal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1990, and the AIA Gold Medal in 1993.

In 2012, Roche was inducted into Irish America magazine's Hall of Fame.[3]

Biography

Born in Dublin, but raised in Mitchelstown, County Cork, Roche graduated from University College Dublin in 1945. He then worked with Michael Scott from 1945-46. From summer to fall of 1946 he worked with Maxwell Fry in London. In 1947 he applied for graduate studies at Harvard, Yale, and Illinois Institute of Technology and was accepted at all three institutions, and left Ireland in 1948 to study under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

In 1949, he worked at the planning office for the United Nations Headquarters building in New York City. In 1950, he joined the firm of Eero Saarinen and Associates.[4] His future partner, John Dinkeloo, joined the firm in 1951 and this was also where Roche met his wife Jane. 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.

In 1966, Roche and Dinkeloo formed Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates and completed Saarinen's projects. They completed 12 major unfinished Saarinen builds, including some of Saarinen's best-known work: the Gateway Arch, the expressionistic TWA Flight Center at JFK International Airport in New York City, Dulles International Airport outside Washington, DC, the strictly modern John Deere Headquarters in Moline, Illinois, and the CBS Headquarters building in New York City.[5]

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.[6] 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 became Roche's trademark.

This project was followed by the equally highly acclaimed Ford Foundation building in New York, considered the first large-scale architectural building in the USA 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 the Architectural Record as "a new kind of urban space".[7]

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 afterwards they began a 40-year association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, for whom they did extensive remodelling and built many extensions to house new galleries including one containing the Egyptian Temple of Dendur. Other high-profile commissions came from clients as varied as the Wesleyan University, United Nations, Cummins Engines, Union Carbide, The US 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 New York Zoo. Roche has served as a trustee of the American Academy in Rome, president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, member of the National Academy of Design, and member of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts.[8]

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 and at the Building Museum in Washington, and the University of Toronto.

In addition to the Pritzker Prize, Kevin Roche has been the recipient of numerous honours 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 is directed by Irish filmmaker (and ex-architecture student) Mark Noonan.

Buildings

The Head Office for Bouygues SA Holding company received the “Haute Qualité Environnementale (HQE)” which is the highest certification for environmental quality in building design in France.
Headquarters for Santander Central Hispano located in Madrid, Spain.
New American Wing for Twentieth Century Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The continuous glass wall at Lucent Technologies in Nuremberg, Germany wraps around the complex to create a unified street facade.
Unlike conventional New York office buildings which isolate the occupants, the Ford Foundation Headquarters creates an environment of openness and fosters a sense of working family.
The DN Tower 21 in Tokyo, Japan.

Awards and honors

Mr. Roche has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the following:

Honorary Degrees:

Further reading

Articles
  • Currey, Mason. “Rediscovered Masterpiece: Ford Foundation”, Metropolis (December 2008), pp. 90–104
  • McMillan, Elizabeth. “Kevin Roche: Pritzker Prize Winner”, Veranda (October 2007), pp. 150–158, 241.
  • Lee, Sangleem. “Kevin Roche”, Space (July 2006); pp. 159–181.
Special magazine editions
  • Nakamura, Toshio. Kevin Roche, Architecture and Urbanism (A+U) Extra Edition, Tokyo, Japan: The Japan Architect Co. Ltd. Yoshio Yoshida, Publisher, 1987
  • Hozumi, Toshio et al. Latest Works of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates, Architecture & Urbanism, (A+U), No. 211, Tokyo, Japan: The Japan Architect Co., Ltd., April, 1988, No.211.
  • Hara, Hiroshi and Nobutaka Ashira. America’s New Architectural Wave: The Architect Kevin Roche’s Appearance on The Scene, SD Space Design No. 63, A Monthly Journal of Art & Architecture, Tokyo, Japan: January 1970.
  • Miller, Nory. Roche Dinkeloo, General Foods Headquarters, Texas Christian University Visual Arts Center, One Summit Square, Deere Financial Services Hdqrs., & Kevin Roche Interview Global Architecture, GA Document 9, A.D.A. EDITA Tokyo Co., Ltd., February 1984.
  • Futagawa, Yukio. Roche Dinkeloo, 6 High Rise Projects Deutsche Bank, J. P. Morgan, Design for Two Buildings in Denver, Dallas Competition, High Rise Study in Houston]. Global Architecture, GA Document 12. Tokyo, Japan: A.D.A. EDITA Tokyo Co., Ltd., January 1985.
  • Miller, Nory. Roche Dinkeloo Cummins Engine Company Corporate Office Building, Columbus Indiana & Conoco Inc. Petroleum Headquarters, Global Architecture, GA Document 14, editing and publishing by Yukio Futagawa, A.D.A. EDITA Tokyo Co., Ltd., photographs, RETORIA: Y. Futagawa & Associated Photographers, December 1985.
  • Futagawa, Yukio. Roche Dinkeloo, Bouygues Headquarters, Global Architecture, GA Document 22. Tokyo, Japan: A.D.A. EDITA Tokyo Co., Ltd., January 1989.

References

  1. ↑ COTTER, HOLLAND (January 15, 2012). "The Met Reimagines the American Story". Art Review. New York Times. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  2. ↑ Goldberger, Paul (April 15, 1982). "Kevin Roche Wins PRITZKER PRIZE in Architecture". Times Article. New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  3. ↑ Langan, Sheila. "Kevin Roche Visionary Architect", "Irish America magazine", March 14, 2012; accessed March 21, 2012.
  4. ↑ "An Irish starchitect: the iconic buildings that have made Kevin Roche's reputation", The Irish Times, April 9, 2011.
  5. ↑ unknown, unknown (December 14, 1992). "Architecture Award to Kevin Roche". December 14, 1992. New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  6. ↑ "RocheDinkeloo - Museums". www.krjda.com. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  7. ↑ http://www.architecturalrecord.com/ext/resources/news/2016/01-Jan/InTheCause/Ford-Foundation-Jonathan-Barnett-February-1968.pdf
  8. ↑ Thomas E. Luebke, ed., Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013): Appendix B, p. 553.
  9. ↑ GOLDBERGER, PAUL (November 29, 1987). "ARCHITECTURE VIEW; Kevin Roche Finishes a Trio And Changes His Tune". New York Times. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  10. ↑ unknown, unknown (September 30, 1989). "Kevin Roche Honored For Redesign of Zoo". September 30, 1989. New York Times. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  11. ↑ VOGEL, CAROL (January 5, 2012). "Advertise on NYTimes.com Grand Galleries for National Treasures". Times Article. New York Times. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  12. ↑ Yudell, Leslie. "Leslie Yudell". Architectural Record. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
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