Rockwellgroup - Newsletter: Summer Edition, July 2011

Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

Part of the redevelopment of the Lincoln Center campus, the Film Society now has a new home, offering two screening rooms, a flexible amphitheater, and a three meal café. The accessible and welcoming nature of the Film Center is reflected in the industrial, simple materials from the poured concrete floor and Venetian plaster ceiling, to the splashes of the signature bright orange color, as in the glass entrance that acts like a beacon to passersby on 65th Street. See the videos from Vanity Fair and Crane TV, and read the reviews in The New York Times, the AP, and World Architecture News.

Nobu Beijing

The first Nobu restaurant in the People’s Republic of China, this location continues the rich, nature-accented aesthetic that Nobu is known for. Located in the Beijing Central Business District, with an exclusive street entrance next to the J. W. Marriott, the space features a bronze sculpture made of 150 bronze twigs hanging above the sinuous black-walnut bar, hand-woven abaca screens in the main dining room, and five custom bronze chandeliers clustered together, recalling the Chinese folk art of decorative knots.

Untitled

This is the second collaboration with Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, following Maialino. From the name down to the furniture, the new cellar-level restaurant and café at the Whitney Museum of American Art, blends seamlessly yet stands out amid Marcel Breuer’s mid-century architecture. Handsome white oak tops the generous bar and streamlined dining tables, which can be easily removed for events along with the rest of the furniture. The purity of the materials and design complements the simple, farm-to-table cuisine, an uptown take on the classic diner. Read more in Interior Design, Wallpaper, and The Feast.

YOTEL New York at Times Square West

It’s the new frontier: 42^nd Street and 10^th Avenue. It’s also home to the debut U.S. location of YOTEL, the European hotel brand. This flagship, a collaboration with the UK-based firm Softroom, incorporates the efficiency, flexibility and forward-thinking technology of YOTEL’s London and Amsterdam airport properties into an innovative, hip, affordable, urban hotel. The 669 keys provide guests with everything they need, and are augmented by the largest outdoor terrace space in Manhattan, a destination restaurant, lounges, a bar, and event and meeting rooms. Read more in Time Out New York.

Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me If You Can, based on the 2002 Steven Spielberg film, opened at the Neil Simon Theater on April 10. The Tony-award winning Hairspray team – set designer David Rockwell, director Jack O’Brien, choreographer Jerry Mitchell, composer Marc Shaiman and lyricist Scott Whitman – transformed this engaging and humorous tale of travel and deception for Broadway. The sets were inspired by the beautiful, organic forms of airports and airplanes from the 1960s. Rockwell Group was also heavily influenced by popular looks from that era, including TV Spectaculars and sharp color-block graphics. See the review in Lighting & Sound America.

The Normal Heart

The limited-run revival of The Normal Heart opened to rave reviews at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway on April 27, and it recently won three Tony awards, including Best Revival of a Play. For the set, David Rockwell created a stark backdrop of white walls with individually cut out sentences recounting the early events of the AIDS crisis. After intermission, the walls are blasted with names, a projection experience that memorializes the fallen. Read the reviews in The New York Times, The New Yorker and Theater Mania.

Build Up!

This playful, interactive installation appeared at the National Building Museum’s 25^th Anniversary of the Honor Award Gala on May 17, where David Rockwell gave the keynote address. Build Up! invited guests to work together to create a virtual cityscape that was projected onto a suspended structure above the gala space. At four iPad-embedded pedestals, guests could generate colorful buildings which they then "pushed" up into the projected cityscape. See the video here, and read more on Curbed.

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

Rockwell Group’s overall design vision for The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas resort, which opened at the turn of 2011, was to redefine the total experience of Las Vegas, from arriving to eating to dancing to sleeping. Adding to the kinetic, transformative spaces are Rockwell Group's LAB installations, such as the immersive digital programming on LCD screens wrapping the nine giant central columns in the West Lobby. See the video here, and read more in the Los Angeles Times, Travel + Leisure, ABC's Nightline, and Interior Design.

Imagination Playground Announced as an INDEX Award Finalist

Imagination Playground has been named a finalist in the “play” category of the INDEX: Award, the world's largest monetary prize for design. The Danish-based, nonprofit organization promotes design that has the capacity to improve the lives of people worldwide. All finalists will be included in the world-touring INDEX: Award 2011 Exhibition premiering in Copenhagen in September. The winners will be announced September 2. Check out their website here.

Introducing David Roccosalva as Rockwell Group's Director of New Business

We welcome David Roccosalva to Rockwell Group as the Director of New Business Development. An architect himself, Roccosalva’s 20 years of experience in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors includes serving as the Director of Marketing at Handel Architects, the Marketing and Business Development principal at Page & Turnbull, and as Director of Professional Practice and Emerging Architects at the American Institute of Architects.

Architecture and Interiors