David Rockwell
Encyclopedia
David Rockwell is an American
architect
and designer, who is the founder and CEO of Rockwell Group, based in New York with satellite offices in Madrid
and Dubai
. Rockwell has long been fascinated with immersive environments.
, Illinois
, Rockwell also spent part of his childhood in Deal, New Jersey
and Guadalajara
, Mexico
. He was a child of the theater as his mother worked as a vaudeville
dancer and choreographer. She sometimes cast him in community repertory productions.
Rockwell brought his passion for theater and an eye for the color and spectacle of Mexico to his architecture training at Syracuse University
, where he received a BA. He also studied at the Architectural Association in London. These formative influences continue to shape his practice.
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...
and designer, who is the founder and CEO of Rockwell Group, based in New York with satellite offices in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
and Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
. Rockwell has long been fascinated with immersive environments.
Early life and education
Born in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, Rockwell also spent part of his childhood in Deal, New Jersey
Deal, New Jersey
Deal is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the borough population was 750.Deal was incorporated as a borough on March 7, 1898, by an act of the New Jersey Legislature, from portions of Ocean Township....
and Guadalajara
Guadalajara, Jalisco
Guadalajara is the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, and the seat of the municipality of Guadalajara. The city is located in the central region of Jalisco in the western-pacific area of Mexico. With a population of 1,564,514 it is Mexico's second most populous municipality...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. He was a child of the theater as his mother worked as a vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
dancer and choreographer. She sometimes cast him in community repertory productions.
Rockwell brought his passion for theater and an eye for the color and spectacle of Mexico to his architecture training at Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
, where he received a BA. He also studied at the Architectural Association in London. These formative influences continue to shape his practice.
Career
Rockwell began his work with other firms, but in 1984 founded his own design firm, the Rockwell Group. With a multi-disciplinary staff, he has led numerous design projects of retail and restaurant interiors, hospitals, theatres and museums, as well as set designs.Design projects
- Adour, Alain Ducasse at The St. Regis
- Alex Hotel, New York City
- Aloft hotels (Starwood Hotels & Resorts)
- Bar Americain
- Bobby Flay Steak in Borgata (Atlantic City, NJ)
- Canyon Ranch Miami Beach
- Chambers Hotel
- Children’s Hospital at Montefiore
- The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas Hotel
- David Rockwell for Maya Romanoff wall covering collections
- Elinor Bunin-Munroe Film Center, Lincoln Center
- Gordon Ramsay’s Maze (London)
- Imagination Playground
- Kodak TheatreKodak TheatreThe Kodak Theatre is a live theatre in the Hollywood and Highland shopping mall and entertainment complex on Hollywood Boulevard and North Highland Avenue in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles...
, home of the Academy Awards ceremony (Los Angeles) - Interior work in the jetBlue terminal at John F. Kennedy International AirportJohn F. Kennedy International AirportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...
- Murano Grande at Portofino Miami Beach
- Nobu
- Nobu Fifty Seven
- Nobu Melbourne
- Nobu Hong Kong
- Nobu at Atlantis The Palm resort in Dubai
- Nokia Theatre Times SquareNokia Theatre Times SquareThe Best Buy Theater in Times Square is an indoor theatre, owned and managed by Anschutz Entertainment Group , located on 1515 Broadway, at the corner of Broadway and 44th street. It was designed by architect David Rockwell and opened in September 2005...
- Hall of Fragments, the entrance installation to the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale
- W Hotel New York, Union Square and Vieques
- The Walt Disney Family MuseumThe Walt Disney Family MuseumThe Walt Disney Family Museum is an American museum that features the life and legacy of Walt Disney. The museum is located in The Presidio of San Francisco, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco. The Museum retrofitted and expanded three existing historic buildings on...
, San Francisco - museum design
Set design
- HairsprayHairspray (musical)Hairspray is a musical with music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman and a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, based on the 1988 John Waters film Hairspray. The songs include 1960s-style dance music and "downtown" rhythm and blues...
- Dirty Rotten ScoundrelsDirty Rotten Scoundrels (musical)Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a Broadway musical, with music and lyrics by David Yazbek and a book by Jeffrey Lane; it is based on the film of the same name...
- All Shook UpAll Shook Up (musical)All Shook Up is a jukebox musical with Elvis Presley music, with a book by Joe DiPietro. The story is based on William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.-Production history:...
- Legally BlondeLegally Blonde (musical)Legally Blonde is a musical with music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin and book by Heather Hach. The story is based on the novel Legally Blonde by Amanda Brown and the 2001 film of the same name. It tells the story of Elle Woods, a sorority girl who enrolls at Harvard Law School to...
- Phantom the Las Vegas Spectacular (Scenic additions to original production design by Maria Bjornson)
- Team America: World Police (2004, film)
- The 81st Annual Academy Awards81st Academy AwardsThe 81st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2008 and took place February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST...
(2009) - The 82nd Annual Academy Awards82nd Academy AwardsThe 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2009 and took place March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. The ceremony was scheduled well after...
(2010) - Catch Me If You CanCatch Me if You Can (musical)Catch Me If You Can is a musical with a libretto by Terrence McNally and a theatrical score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. It follows the story of con artist Frank Abagnale, Jr...
Books
- Pleasure: The Architecture and Design of Rockwell Group, Universe, a division of Rizzoli Books, 2002.
- David Rockwell with Bruce Mau, Spectacle, Phaidon Press, 2006. Examines the history and public fascination with larger-than-life man-made events.
See also
- List of Syracuse University People
- InterContinental Hong KongInterContinental Hong KongInterContinental Hong Kong is an InterContinental hotel in Hong Kong. It is located in 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. It was the site of Holt's Wharf.- History :...
- Material ConneXion Inc.
External links
- Rockwell Group website
- Rockwell Group LAB website
- Imagination Playground website
- Spectacle the Book website
- David Rockwell: Building the Ground Zero viewing platform TEDTED (conference)TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
, Feb. 2002 - Venice Biennale Hall of fragments - Rockwell Group