Kevin Roche, the Pritzker-winning architect known for his innovative and sometimes unusual designs, turns 91 today. His firm Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates was once described by critic C. Ray Smith as "the most aesthetically daring and innovative American firm of architects now working".
Born in Ireland in 1922, Roche's early years as an architect are telling: he first moved to the USA in 1948 to study under Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology but left after just one semester, eventually swapping Mies's strict formulaic style for a much more expressive modernism when he joined the firm of Eero Saarinen.
Roche is well known for his buildings such as the Knights of Columbus Building; however as Principal Design Associate at Eero Saarinen and Associates at the time of Saarinen's death, he was also instrumental in the completion of many well known Saarinen projects such as the TWA Terminal at JFK Airport and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
On the occasion of his 91st birthday, we invite you to look at our coverage of Kevin Roche on ArchDaily:
