Kevin Roche

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Kevin Roche (b. June 14, 1922) is an award winning twentieth-century Irish-American architect. He is famous for his creative work with glass.

Born in Dublin, Roche graduated from St. Mary's College, Dublin where he captained the s.c.t in 4th year and got to the rugby final all 3 years after this. He then moved on to University College Dublin before immigrating to the United States in 1948. There he studied under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and later worked for Eero Saarinen. When Saarinen died in 1961, Roche completed 12 major unfinished Saarinen projects, including some of Saarinen's best-known work: the Gateway Arch, the expressionistic TWA Terminal at JFK International Airport in New York, Dulles International Airport outside Washington, DC, the strictly modern John Deere Headquarters in Moline, Illinois, and CBS Headquarters in New York City.

In 1966 Roche and civil engineer John Dinkeloo changed the name of Eero Saarinen and Associates to Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates upon completion of Saarinen's projects. Together, their 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.

Roche has master planned and designed diverse facilities noted for their advances in design concepts. His completed works include 8 museums, 38 corporate headquarters, 7 research facilities, performing arts centers, theaters, campus buildings for 6 universities, and the Central Park Zoo. In 1967 he created the master plan for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and since that date has designed all of the new wings and the installation of many collections.

Dinkeloo died in 1981. Roche continues the practice with two partners in Hamden, Connecticut.

Among other awards, Roche received the Pritzker Prize in 1982 and the AIA Gold Medal in 1993.