Since David Rockwell founded Rockwell Group in New York in 1984, his 250-person firm has become a leader and go-to in both hospitality and theater design realms (even earning him a Tony Award), lending its savvy to projects around the globe. From his tenure working with industry visionaries like Barry Sternlicht and Danny Meyer, and influential brands such as the TAO Group and Related, he explained how curiosity and experiential design create synergy between these two sensory passions.
Theater’s influence
Theater has always been an important influence to Rockwell and is directly incorporated in his work. “Finding a way to take the things you love, keep them alive, nurture them, and then bring those into the work you’re doing is an extraordinary gift.” Rockwell’s fascination with theater and storytelling led him to constantly ponder two questions: How is an audience member or a guest different from before they saw a show or interacted with a space? What was the emotional journey they undertook?
Hospitality as a live experience
When TED invited Rockwell Group to build a theater for its annual conference at the Vancouver Convention Centre, they masterminded a 1,300-seat pop-up venue with a range of seating options so patrons could inhabit the space differently; the theater’s 600 sections are boxes designed to be stacked onsite in five days. “What I find about theater that cuts through the vagueness of the word immersive is it’s a live experience that happens when you’re there, and when all those pieces aren’t together, it doesn’t exist. If the set, the music, the dance, the actors aren’t there, it’s inert, and the same is true of hospitality. When I’m walking through a hotel or a restaurant, I think of my movement as a sort of camera dolly.”
Tell the whole story
Rockwell’s relationship with chef Nobu Matsuhisa is a long, rich one that has culminated in multiple collaborations. The chef’s Japanese countryside upbringing and his South American influences have informed Rockwell’s narrative for his various restaurants, including the new downtown New York location, which reopened after the original Tribeca outpost closed. Likewise, Rockwell “extracted the backstory” when working on the Broadway show Tootsie. Often, images of New York, like those of skyscrapers, skew masculine. This production was a chance to capture the city’s feminine energies as well.
Photography by Eric Laignel, Paul Warchol, Geordie Wood, and courtesy of Rockwell Group
