Martin Roche
Encyclopedia
Martin Roche was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

.

In partnership with William Holabird
William Holabird
William Holabird was an American architect.Holabird studied at the United States Military Academy at West Point but resigned and moved to Chicago, where he later got married. He worked for William Le Baron Jenney...

, Martin Roche designed buildings following the Chicago School
Chicago school (architecture)
Chicago's architecture is famous throughout the world and one style is referred to as the Chicago School. The style is also known as Commercial style. In the history of architecture, the Chicago School was a school of architects active in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century...

 and that were landmarks in the development of early sky scrapers. He worked for William Le Baron Jenney
William Le Baron Jenney
William Le Baron Jenney was an American architect and engineer who became known as the Father of the American skyscraper.- Life and career :...

 until 1881 when he joined William Holabird
William Holabird
William Holabird was an American architect.Holabird studied at the United States Military Academy at West Point but resigned and moved to Chicago, where he later got married. He worked for William Le Baron Jenney...

 at Holabird & Simonds. One of their first commissions was Graceland Cemetery
Graceland Cemetery
Graceland Cemetery is a large Victorian era cemetery located in the north side community area of Uptown, in the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA. Established in 1860, its main entrance is at the intersection of Clark Street and Irving Park Road...

. Ossian Simonds left the practice in 1883 to concentrate on landscape design, and the firm was renamed Holabird & Roche
Holabird & Roche
The architectural firm of Holabird & Root was founded in Chicago in 1880. Over the years, the firm's designs have changed many times — from the Chicago School to Art Deco to Modern Architecture to Sustainable Architecture.-History:...

.

Together they contributed many innovations to the Chicago School
Chicago school (architecture)
Chicago's architecture is famous throughout the world and one style is referred to as the Chicago School. The style is also known as Commercial style. In the history of architecture, the Chicago School was a school of architects active in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century...

 including the Chicago School windows, which allowed more sunlight into office buildings. They designed buildings including the Marquette Building
Marquette Building (Chicago)
The Marquette Building, completed in 1895, is a Chicago, Illinois landmark that was built by the George A. Fuller Company and designed by architects Holabird & Roche. The building is currently owned by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation...

, the Cable Building (1899) and the Gage Building (1899).

Roche was a fine designer with an eye for Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

. He designed the world's first Gothic-style skyscraper for the University Club of Chicago, which opened in 1908. Later, the firm designed the neoclassical Soldier Field
Soldier Field
Soldier Field is located on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in the Near South Side. It is home to the NFL's Chicago Bears...

 (1924).

William Holabird died in 1923 and Martin Roche followed four years later. Holabird's son John
John Augur Holabird
John Augur Holabird was a significant U.S. architect based in Chicago. Born on May 4, 1886, the day of Chicago's Haymarket Riot, John was the son of architect William Holabird. As a young man he studied architecture at Paris' Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he became friends with John Wellborn Root,...

 took over the firm with John Root, Jr., and it was renamed Holabird & Root.

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