ROCHE, KEVIN

born June 14, 1922, Dublin, Ire. in full Eamonn Kevin Roche naturalized American architect of governmental, educational, and corporate structures, especially noted for the work he did in partnership with Eero Saarinen. Roche graduated in 1945 with a bachelor's degree in architecture from the National University of Ireland in Dublin. After short-term employment with firms in Dublin and London, he did postgraduate work at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago under Mies van der Rohe. He worked briefly with the United Nations Planning Office in New York City and in 1950 joined the firm of Eero Saarinen and Associates, functioning from 1954 to 1961 as the firm's principal associate in design. After Saarinen's death in 1961, Roche and his future partner, John Dinkeloo (191881), completed Saarinen's incomplete projects, including the Dulles International Airport Terminal Building near Washington, D.C. (1962), the Vivian Beaumont Repertory Theater for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in Manhattan (opened 1965), and the stainless-steel Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Gateway Arch) in St. Louis (1965). In 1966 they launched Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates. Their design approach retained some similarity to that of Saarinen in its individual examination of and response to each new project. Among the projects for which Roche and Dinkeloo are known are the Ford Foundation Headquarters in New York City (1968), General Foods Corporation Headquarters in Rye, N.Y. (1977), and the Bouygues World Headquarters outside of Paris (1983). Roche was elected president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1994, to serve until 1997.