George Rockrise (1917-2000)

George T. Rockrise graduated from Syracuse University’s School of Architecture (1930) and earned his M.S. in Architecture from Columbia in 1941. He worked as an architect for the Panama Canal Service, the U.S. Navy, and the Corps of Engineers. Following the war, Rockrise worked in New York with Edward Stone and then with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as a staff architect on the United Nations Headquarters Building. In 1947 Thomas Church invited Rockrise to San Francisco to become an associate and in 1949 he opened his own practice. He later established ROMA, an architecture and planning firm. His career was also distinguished by his continual and active involvement in several local and Federal public associations and his leadership roles in civic and professional organizations.

The George T. Rockrise collection spans the years 1935-1991. The majority of projects in the office and project records series were completed by Rockrise as a sole practitioner, often collaborating with landscape architects such as Thomas D. Church and Lawrence Halprin. Project records consist of files, photographs, and plans. Some of Rockrise’s notable projects are the pavilion at the Dewey Donnell Garden in Sonoma County and the American Consulate Office in Fukuoka, Japan. The collection also contains some work from his time with ROMA, mainly the Charbonneau Development in Wilsonville, Oregon.