Office profile
Roche Headquarters & offices · Basel, Switzerland
Roche · Basel, Switzerland
Spiral staircases join every three floors of a 205-metre tower, and each cluster of floors opens onto its own terrace.
Two Herzog & de Meuron towers on Roche's Basel site, the Swiss benefits and 130 years of office history — then the business. Every number from Roche's own reports, releases and careers pages.
- 205 mBuilding 2, Switzerland's tallest building when it opened
- 3,200workplaces in Building 2
- 112,774employees worldwide (2025)
- 18 weekspaid maternity leave in Basel
Sources: Roche media release on Building 2 (Sept 2, 2022) · Herzog & de Meuron project page · Roche benefits brochure Basel/Kaiseraugst · Annual Report 2025
Companies / Switzerland / Pharmaceuticals & diagnostics / Roche
THE NEWEST TOWER · BUILDING 2 · 2022
Switzerland's tallest building, designed so 3,200 people talk
Building 2's office floors are grouped in clusters of three, each joined by its own spiral staircase so people from different departments meet. Thanks to the stepped shape, every cluster has a terrace or loggia. There is a café on the ground floor, a bistro on the 12th floor and a cafeteria at the top with a view over Basel and the countryside.
- 205 m · 50 floors
- ≈ 3,200 workplaces
- Spiral stairs every three floors
- Top-floor cafeteria
- Heated by the site's waste heat
- Design: Herzog & de Meuron
Building 2: spiral stairs, terraces and the top-floor cafeteria (2022)
Herzog & de Meuron grouped Building 2's office floors in clusters of three, each joined by its own spiral staircase, so people from different departments meet on the way.
Building 1, on opening (2015)
Building 1, 178 m and 41 storeys, was Switzerland's tallest building when it opened in September 2015; white spiral stairs link its floors and the cafeteria sits at the top.
The two towers from the Rhine
Seen from the river, Building 1 (2015) and the taller Building 2 (2022) step up side by side on the south side of the Roche site.
Facts: Herzog & de Meuron project page “445 Roche Building 2” · Roche media release, Sept 2, 2022.
The Roche site on Grenzacherstrasse, Basel
| Building | Address |
|---|---|
| Headquarters, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd | Grenzacherstrasse 124, CH-4070 Basel, Switzerland |
| Building 1 (2015) and Building 2 (2022) | Roche Basel site, Grenzacherstrasse, Basel |
| Building 21, administration building (1930s) | Roche Basel site, Grenzacherstrasse, Basel |
Source: roche.ch contact page · Roche media release on the south site (Oct 14, 2020) · Roche Spaces · See them on the map ↓
Source: Roche media release, Sept 2, 2022 · Herzog & de Meuron project pages “345 Roche Building 1” and “445 Roche Building 2” · visit-roche.ch. Herzog & de Meuron give Building 2's gross floor area as 85,500 m² (920,313 sq ft).
Benefits (Switzerland: Basel and Kaiseraugst)
Paid, four weeks more than Swiss law requires.
Paid partnership leave for the partner or second parent.
23 days for ages 20–45, 30 days for ages 46–60.
Five non-working days (or ten half-days) on top of public holidays.
Roche Connect: buy Roche non-voting equity securities at a reduced price.
Roche Annual Bonus, based on personal, unit and Group performance.
Childcare facilities at the Basel and Kaiseraugst sites.
A swimming pool, gym and Roche Sports Club, plus staff restaurants and cafés.
Source: Roche benefits brochure “Roche Benefits & Services” (Basel, Kaiseraugst, Reinach) · careers.roche.com/basel-kaiseraugst. The brochure is an overview; contracts take precedence.
Why people stay: what Roche itself says
Roche in Switzerland has no probationary period; notice rises to six months after age 45.
The Roche Annual Bonus goes to all permanent employees on individual contracts.
Annual working time, part-time, job-sharing, working from home and sabbaticals where the job allows.
Every employee can use a local Employee Assistance or Counselling Program, plus Mental Health Champions.
Two wellbeing weeks are held at all Roche office sites each year.
10,080 employees from 106 nationalities work at the two sites.
Source: Roche benefits brochure Basel/Kaiseraugst/Reinach · careers.roche.com (Your Wellbeing Matters; Basel/Kaiseraugst)
Who works here
employees worldwide (Dec 31, 2025)
employees in Switzerland
at Basel and Kaiseraugst, from 106 nationalities
employees under 30 (2025)
Source: Roche Annual Report 2025 (headcount now includes apprentices, interns and people on unpaid leave) · careers.roche.com (Switzerland; Basel/Kaiseraugst)
Compare Roche with: Johnson & Johnson
Office history: 130 years on one site in Basel
- 1896 Founded in Basel
F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co was founded on October 1, 1896, in Basel, Switzerland. Fritz Hoffmann had seen the cholera outbreak in Hamburg and believed medicines should be made industrially and sold internationally.
Source: roche.com, “Our history”
F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co., Grenzacherstrasse, Basel, 1918–1937 · Walter Mittelholzer / Public domain · Wikimedia Commons - 1912 Nine countries, 700 people
By 1912 Roche employed more than 700 people and had affiliate offices in nine countries on three continents, from Japan to the United States.
Source: roche.com, “Our history”
No free-to-use photo found yet.Have one? We’d love to add it. - 1930s Salvisberg's masterplan and Building 21
Under general director Emil C. Barell, Roche hired architect Otto Rudolf Salvisberg. His 1930s masterplan set the checkerboard layout of the site by the Rhine, and in 1936 he built an oak staircase for administration Building 21, which still stands.
Source: Roche Spaces (Salvisberg; Emblematic stairs) · Herzog & de Meuron, “445 Roche Building 2” · Roche release, Oct 14, 2020
Salvisberg's administration building, 2010 · Andreas Schwarzkopf / CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons - 2006 A plan for one clear site
Roche decided to put research and development in the northern part of its Basel site and the global headquarters in the southern part, along Grenzacherstrasse.
Source: Herzog & de Meuron, “345 Roche Building 1”
No free-to-use photo found yet.Have one? We’d love to add it. - 2015 Building 1: 178 m, about 2,000 workplaces
Roche opened Building 1 on September 18, 2015: a 41-storey, 178 m tower by Herzog & de Meuron, the tallest building in Switzerland at the time. It brought together departments that had been spread across the city.
Source: Herzog & de Meuron, “345 Roche Building 1” and project text (Architizer)
Building 1 shortly after opening, October 2015 · Norbert Aepli, Switzerland (User:Noebu) / CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons - 2022 Building 2: 205 m, 3,200 workplaces
On September 2, 2022 Roche inaugurated Building 2, a 50-floor, 205 m tower that cost CHF 550 million. Employees from offices around Basel moved to the centre of the site.
Source: Roche media release, Sept 2, 2022
Building 2 under construction next to Building 1, 2021 · EinDao / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons - 2024 Research centre in the northern part
Roche opened its Pharma Research and Development Center in Basel, with around 1,000 laboratory and office workplaces, a CHF 1.2 billion investment.
Source: Roche media releases, Sept 2, 2022 and Sept 10, 2024
Buildings 6 and 7 of the research centre under construction, 2022 · Silesia711 / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons - Next A third tower in a riverside park
Roche plans to replace older southern buildings, except Building 1 and the historic Building 21, with a park, a reception building and a third office tower of up to 221 m.
Source: Roche media release, Oct 14, 2020
No free-to-use photo found yet.Have one? We’d love to add it.
Map: how the headquarters moved
Every building on this map stands on the same Roche site on Grenzacherstrasse in Basel, by the Rhine: from Salvisberg's 1930s administration building to two towers a few hundred metres apart.
- 1 · 1930sBuilding 21, Salvisberg's administration building — Roche Basel site, Grenzacherstrasse — kept in the site plans
- 2 · 2015Building 1 — 178 m tower by Herzog & de Meuron, about 2,000 workplaces
- 3 · 2022Building 2 — headquarters site, Grenzacherstrasse — 205 m tower by Herzog & de Meuron, about 3,200 workplaces
Addresses: roche.ch contact page · Roche releases (2020, 2022) · Herzog & de Meuron project pages · Locations: OpenStreetMap
What Roche does
Roche was founded in Basel in 1896 as one of the first companies set up to make scientifically researched medicines. Today it has two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Genentech in the US belongs to Roche, and Roche is the majority shareholder of Chugai in Japan.
Two divisions: Pharmaceuticals (CHF 47.7B) and Diagnostics (CHF 13.8B), 2025.
Where the money came from · sales by region, 2025 (CHF)
Source: Roche Finance Report 2025, Multi-Year Overview (sales by geographical area)
Source: Roche 2025 results release (Jan 29, 2026) · Finance Report 2025 · USD conversion calculated by eciffo with the average rate stated in the Finance Report
Growth: revenue vs. people
CHF 50.6B → CHF 61.5B
94,052 → 112,774
Sales in billions of Swiss francs, as reported. Sales: Finance Report 2020 and 2025, Multi-Year Overview. Employees at year end: Finance Report 2020 (2016–2020) and Annual Report 2025 (2025, wider scope including apprentices, interns and unpaid leave; Roche says the comparable workforce was broadly unchanged from 2024). 2021–2024 employee counts not shown. Multiples calculated by eciffo.
Chief executives
CEO of the Roche Group since March 15, 2023; previously CEO of the Diagnostics Division.
CEO for 15 years; Chairman of the Board since 2023.
Founder: Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche (1896).
Source: roche.com leadership · Roche media releases (July 21, 2022; March 14, 2023) · Severin Schwan's 2023 AGM speech
Roche: questions people ask
Where is Roche's headquarters?
At Grenzacherstrasse 124, 4070 Basel, Switzerland, on the Roche site by the Rhine. The headquarters is in the southern part of the site, around the towers Building 1 and Building 2.
Source: roche.ch contact page · Herzog & de Meuron, “345 Roche Building 1”
Who designed the Roche Towers?
Herzog & de Meuron, the Basel architects who have worked with Roche since the 1990s, designed both Building 1 (2015) and Building 2 (2022).
Source: Herzog & de Meuron project pages
How tall is Roche's Building 2?
205 metres with 50 floors. When it opened in 2022 it was the tallest building in Switzerland. Building 1 next to it is 178 metres.
Source: Roche media release, Sept 2, 2022 · Herzog & de Meuron
How many people work in the Roche Towers?
Building 2 has around 3,200 workplaces and Building 1 about 2,000. Around 10,080 people work at Roche's Basel and Kaiseraugst sites.
Source: Roche media release, Sept 2, 2022 · Herzog & de Meuron · careers.roche.com
Can you visit Roche in Basel?
Yes. Roche offers visits for groups and individuals on different topics through visit-roche.ch, and says more than 6,500 people visit each month.
Source: visit-roche.ch
What benefits does Roche offer in Switzerland?
In Basel and Kaiseraugst: 18 weeks of paid maternity leave, 10 weeks of paid partnership leave, 23 to 30 days of holiday plus five extra non-working days, discounted Roche securities through Roche Connect, an annual bonus, childcare, a swimming pool and staff restaurants.
Source: Roche benefits brochure Basel/Kaiseraugst/Reinach · careers.roche.com
Does Roche allow flexible or remote work?
Roche says it offers part-time, flexi-time, job-sharing, working from home and sabbaticals wherever the job and local rules allow. In Switzerland, an annual working-time system lets employees shape their own daily hours.
Source: careers.roche.com, “Your Wellbeing Matters” · Roche benefits brochure
How many employees does Roche have?
112,774 at the end of 2025, including apprentices and interns. About 47% work in Europe and 13,600 in Switzerland.
Source: Annual Report 2025 · careers.roche.com
Who is Roche's CEO?
Thomas Schinecker, CEO since March 15, 2023. He succeeded Severin Schwan, who had been CEO for 15 years and is now Chairman.
Source: Roche media releases, 2022 and 2023
When was Roche founded?
On October 1, 1896, in Basel, by Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche.
Source: roche.com, “Our history”
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