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John Augustus Bernard Koch (1845-1928) was a Melbourne (Victoria, Australia) architect who practiced between 1869 and 1913. He also became mayor of Richmond near Melbourne.
Koch was born in Hamburg in August 1845 and migrated to Australia with his family in 1855. He was educated and trained as an architect in Melbourne and served his articles with F. M. White. He became White's assistant until 1873 when he started his own practice. In 1871 he married Anna Puttmann at the German Lutheran Trinity Church at Eastern Hill (East Melbourne) where they were active members of the congregation. They had a family of six sons and three daughters. In 1873 he was appointed as Architect to the City of Melbourne and designed a number of market buildings. In 1887 he was appointed Architect for the City of Richmond. He took an active interest in professional and community affairs. He was active in the R.V.I.A., served as a Councillor in the City of Richmond for eight years and served as Mayor from 1882 to 1883.
Koch ceased practice in 1913 and his fifth son, Bernard, carried on his practice. He died in Hawthorn, Victoria in August 1928. He is buried in Boroondara Cemetery.
His best known for the highly elaborate mansion Labassa (now National Trust owned), an extensive enlargement of an earlier house in 1889-1890 in Caulfield North, and Friesia, a single storey house of 1888 with an arcaded porch on three sides at 23 Isabella Grove, Hawthorn, built for Melbourne's first German consul William A Brahe. Most of his work was in Hawthorn and Richmond.
