When you think about New York City, the imagery conjured up in your mind likely involves a skyline filled with hundreds of high rises basking in their glassy glory. But while these dominating buildings may tower above the gridded cityscape below, in reality, the hustle and bustle of everyday life is taking place at ground level.
This is something that New York-based architecture practice Rockwell has in mind when it comes to devising any of their projects – be it the foyer of a hotel, the street level of a restaurant, or the entrance to a city center spa. Each of these spaces offers an opportunity for a chance encounter with the wider community of the city. And those chance encounters are precisely when a space comes alive.
Rockwell has been operating out of New York for four decades, having been founded by architect David Rockwell in 1984, after his training at Syracuse University and the Architectural Association in London. However, when it comes to the influence on his practice, his educational background pails in comparison to his earliest years, during which he was raised in a very theatrical family.
Rockwell's theatrical design for Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Dolby Theatre, designed by Rockwell
Model of the Hairspray stage, designed by Rockwell
“I was very influenced by coming from a family of four older brothers, we were a little bit like a theatre company,” he tells Hypebeast, from inside the office of his Union Square studio that overlooks the park below. His mother had been a dancer, and from his youngest days, Rockwell had been taken along to productions, where he became acutely aware of how a single show could “transform the entire community”.
This sense of togetherness provided a real anchor during moments of transition. At four years old, he lost his father, and when his mother remarried a year later, the family moved to New Jersey. Later down the line, another move – this time to Mexico – took place.
"The part of the city that I fell most in love with is its ground floor"
Here, a teenage Rockwell embraced a sense of newness – the learning of a new language, and the understanding of a different culture became instantly attractive. Mexico, he says, was also the place where he began to understand architecture in a way that made sense to him. “In Mexico, public space was so much more valued than private space,” he recalls. “All of public life was happening in the streets.”
Over the past 40 years since, David Rockwell and his team (which is now made up of over 300 people in three different offices, and co-directed by Shawn Sullivan and Greg Keffer), have been behind wide spectrum projects of projects. As we’re taken around a string of newly completed or in-progress projects across the city, it strikes me that aesthetically, the practice's signature is hard to pin down.
What later becomes obvious, though, is that the red thread throughout his studio’s output isn’t necessarily visible. In the corridors of the Union Square offices, there are flyers for studio-wide events taking place (the favorite of which I’m told, is the annual Halloween costume contest). On desks, members of the team line their partitions with photos of loved ones, memorabilia from past projects, and trinkets that represent who they are.
Inside David Rockwell's office
The Rockwell Group's studios and offices
The Rockwell Group's studios and offices
The Rockwell Group's studios and offices
It’s particularly poignant, especially when you consider how much of a part conviviality plays in Rockwell’s life and work – be it his keen theatre interest or designs for communal spaces – to think about how he shifted his studio’s operations during the pandemic.
Throughout, the team turned their attention to creating strategies for outdoor dining that allowed businesses to remain open, but safely and securely, under the name "DineOut". Their work became less about creating physical spaces, and more about ensuring those spaces remained resilient for the months and years to come. “COVID was such a striking reminder of what happens if cities are just hardware,” Rockwell reflects, “they’re just like an empty theatre.”
Melba's restaurant in Harlem, NYC
Melba's restaurant in Harlem, NYC
Negril restaurant in Brooklyn, NYC
Negril restaurant in Brooklyn, NYC
Pa-Nash restaurant in Queens, NYC
The project launched at the iconic Melba’s Restaurant in Harlem, but the prototype they developed was flexible enough to accommodate restaurants and bars across all five boroughs, making use of parking spaces and sidewalks.
Now that the world has opened back up again, the studio’s roster is flourishing with projects that contribute to the beating heart of the city – be it a new outpost for Bathhouse in Manhattan, or a “Cathedral of Fried Chicken”, also known as Coqadoq.
It’s undeniable that many of the spaces designed by Rockwell across the city are for the financially sound. You could also get cynical about the “starchitect” status he may have been given. But there’s something about Rockwell’s ethos, vision, and attitude that makes you see his spaces as much more than that.
Bathhouse Flatiron, NYC
Bathhouse Flatiron, NYC
Bathhouse Flatiron, NYC
Coqadoq restaurant, NYC
Coqadoq restaurant, NYC
The love and commitment he has to his work, his studio, and most importantly the city in which he has so much influence is palpable. The scope of Rockwell Group’s projects, and how they range from mega hotels and fancy restaurants to tiny theatre sets and children’s play area kits (pictured at the top of the article), almost reflect the open view he has of the place he calls home. “The part of the city that I fell most in love with is its ground floor of the city, which is the messier, more vital part,” he says.
To live in a city is to embrace the fact that you will never experience anything unilaterally. And the company’s 40 year portfolio of the parts needed to create a city is a testament to that way of thinking. “If you want people who agree with you all of the time, you'd live in a suburb,” he says. “To be in a city, you have to want to be in that mixing chamber, where we're sharing the street.”
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