Based in New York with offices in Madrid and Shanghai, Rockwell Group is an interdisciplinary architecture and design firm that emphasizes innovation and thought leadership in every project. The firm merges architecture, theatre, craftsmanship, and technology to create unique narratives for their work, including hospitality, cultural institutions, offices, transportation, residential, set design, products, exhibitions and festivals.
David Rockwell
1956 Born in Chicago, IL
1960 Moved to Deal, New Jersey
1968 Moved to Guadaljara, MX with his mother, step-father, and 4 brothers.
1979 Graduated with a Bachelors of Architecture from Syracuse University
1979 Moved to New York, and worked as an assistant lighting designer.
1983 Designed Sushi Zen in New York, his first restaurant project.
1984 Founded Rockwell Group
1994 Rockwell Group designed the first Nobu in Tribeca, a collaboration which has now evolved into Nobu’s around the world (L.A., Melbourne, Hong Kong, Moscow, Dubai, etc.)
1998 First hotel project: the original W New York, followed by the flagship W Union Square in 2000.
1999 Cirque du Soleil, Orlando, first theater design
2000 First set design for Rocky Horror Picture Show (followed by Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hairspray, Legally Blonde and others in the following years).
2000 Designed the Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards
2001 Collaboration with Ric Scofidio, Liz Diller and Kevin Kennon to design viewing platforms for those who wished to quietly contemplate at the World Trade Center site after 9/11/01.
2001 Designed the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore
2003 Published Rockwell Group’s monograph, Pleasure
2003 Designed sets for Broadway’s Hairspray
2003 First art direction for a film, Team America
2005 Initiated research for a new play initiative, which has resulted in Imagination Playground, a child-centered, "free play" concept that is being realized in fixed-site and portable playgrounds across the country.
2006 Opened first satellite office in Madrid, Rockwell Group Europe, headed by Creative director Diego Gronda.
2006 Authored Spectacle with Bruce Mau, a book about a human's need to gather and celebrate together in the form of man-made spectacles
2008 Received a National Design Award by Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt for outstanding achievement in Interior Design
2008 Designed the entrance installation for the Venice Architecture Biennale
2008 First airport design: the Marketplace at the new jetBlue terminal at JFK
2008 Opened another satellite office in Dubai to be closer to current and future clients in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, etc.
2009 Production design for the 2009 Oscars with Swarovski crystal curtain
2009 Ames Hotel in Boston completes
2009 David Rockwell is honored with the Pratt Legends Award
2009 New York hotel Ink 48 opens
2010 Rockwell Group’s LAB built an interactive urban-scale projection environment as part of the San Jose Biennale, San Jose, CA
2010 Flagship Imagination Playground in Burling Slip, Manhattan opens in July in a partnership with New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
2010 The new Cosmopolitan hotel by Rockwell redefines the hotel experience in Las Vegas.
2010 David Rockwell receives Emmy Award 2010, Winner Outstanding Art Direction for Variety, Music Or Nonfiction Programming, at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards
2010 David Rockwell inducted into James Beard Foundation of Who’s Who of Food and Beverage.
2011 First Rockwell Group project in China, Nobu Beijing, opens.
2011 The David Rockwell Rug Collection is launched internationally with the Rug Company
2011 Imagination Playground in a Cart launches in UK
