Peter Roesch

• Name — Peter Roesch • Born — 30 August 1929 • Birthplace — Leipzig, Germany • Died — 24 September 2018 • Place of death — Chicago, Illinois, U.S. • Occupation — Architect, educator • Known for — Modernist architecture; student of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe • Spouse — Vibeke "Biba" Roesch

Roesch was born in Leipzig, Germany, on August 30, 1929. He studied architecture in Hamburg before coming to the United States as a Fulbright scholar and enrolling at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he studied under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and completed a master's thesis in 1956 titled A Non‑Denominational Church.

After graduating, Roesch worked briefly for firms in Chicago (including a period at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) and later practiced under Hammond & Roesch and in his own atelier. He taught architecture at IIT and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and was an active member of the Chicago architectural community.

• Villa Park Bank (1964; later BMO Harris Bank), Villa Park, Illinois — a single‑story modernist suburban bank with floor-to-ceiling glass walls and exposed steel trusses. The branch has been discussed in architectural commentary as an example of Miesian influence in suburban commercial architecture; structural decisions responded to poor soils at the site and invoked an elevated, bridge‑like support system. • Episcopal Diocese of Chicago Building (65 E. Huron Street, Chicago; 1969) — an office building for the Episcopal Diocese that local coverage described as a restrained modernist intervention in context.

Roesch was married to Vibeke “Biba” Roesch for 54 years. He died in his Chicago apartment on September 24, 2018, aged 89.