Director and Senior Associate Stephan Ritzer has worked across scales, including a new restaurant in New York City, 550 Madison, and Moxy South Beach. We chatted with Stephan about his childhood in an intimate Austrian village, discovering architecture through his father, and how cooking reminds him of design.
What role did design play in your childhood, your family, your experience growing up?
I grew up in Ebbs, Austria, a small village with 5,000 people. It’s a rural area surrounded by mountains, and I spent a lot of time playing outside and in the forest.
My father is an architect, and he renovated a baroque church in our town, which is beautiful. When I visited the site I was fascinated by the roof structure above the dome.
The attic and its old, wood frames had such a mysterious quality, like a hidden world, similar to the fantasy novels I was into at the time. I also played around with my father’s computer and found some 3D modeling software.
My dad had clients who wanted a swimming pool visualization, which wasn’t so common at the time, so I figured out how to do it and got a couple of schillings. That triggered it: Not the money, but the fascination with creating spaces, the materials, forms…. Later we had this teacher in my technical high school who was an architect. He brought a group of us to his home, and he had these designer chairs.
He introduced us to the Vitra campus (in Weil am Rhein, Germany) and we saw the Zaha Hadid Fire Station and Tadao Ando’s Conference Pavilion—that was an explosion of, “Wow,” at 17.
What brought you to the United States?
I studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, in Hani Rashid’s studio, and when I graduated he asked me to come work for him at Asymptote Architecture in New York. Of course I was thrilled to accept the position.
Tell us about an experience you had where design or architecture played a pivotal role – a memorable trip, a specific discovery – doesn’t matter how big or small.
Visiting Le Corbusier’s chapel in Ronchamp. I thought I knew a lot about it before visiting.
I did not and was blown away with “Ronchamp’s backside” which is not published very much. The interaction of forms, materials and light, from the largest to the smallest detail, was eye opening.
If you weren’t an architect/designer, you’d be…
A writer or chef. I am really fascinated with both. Grabbing ingredients and thinking about transformation and skillfully modifying them. What I also like about the cooking process is how sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s like design, even when you have small setbacks, you learn and come back. Writing, too, is something I’m fascinated with, exploring worlds in your mind. I am working on a seafood restaurant here at Rockwell Group, and I read a book about the history of oysters in New York.
150 years ago, the bay was filled with oysters and they were filtering the water, people were on the hunt for new oyster types. We wove that history into our restaurant design on many levels.
What books are on your nightstand right now?
I was just in New Orleans, and I’m reading the cookbook Mosquito Supper Club, by the chef Melissa M. Martin, named after her restaurant there. She is thinking about the traditions in her Cajun cuisine, combined with the geographical implications of climate change. That’s really interesting to me, the culinary arts’ connection with the land. And I am into cooking a lot. Wherever I travel I try to buy a local cookbook. I love going into a bookstore asking for a staff favorite.
What’s a building you’d like to visit and haven’t yet?
The vertical library in Mexico City—Biblioteco Vasconcelos—designed by Alberto Kalach and Juan Palomar. I dream about these vertical book stacks. And Mexico City in general.
Name a recent moment working on a Rockwell Group project where you felt proud / excited / challenged / curious…
What I like about working here at Rockwell Group is that there are so many different challenges—you are working on everything from the master plan of a four-mile-long island; restaurants; or the 550 Madison amenities club.
550 Madison was particularly interesting because the legacy of the 1984 Philip Johnson and John Burgee building demanded such an attention to detail and materials.
What does it mean to design the workplace amenities for the future? What can we do that hasn’t been done yet? We iterated through tons and tons of ideas.
The process was such a joy. The passion of the team, too—people with very clear points of view. Working on all these different projects together with different minds and finding something new is so rewarding.
Seamless, luxurious amenities create a new paradigm for the office at 550 Madison.
Transitional meeting areas seamlessly transpose into entertainment spaces (at both the architectural and furniture scale), elevated food options, and wellness offerings.
Our design is referential and respectful of the building’s history, while also forward-looking, expanding what an office building can mean to today’s workers and mirroring the way most of us move between work, play, and retreat.
What’s your favorite workday snack?
Whatever is closest to me! I’m terrible snacker. I snack a lot.
What is your favorite thing to cook or bake?
Boeuf de bourguignon, because it’s really a commitment. You can track the evolution of the ingredients over a long time. I love the Thomas Keller version.
What’s your favorite part of the RG office?
It’s all of the objects around the office. There are so many prototypes, models, and unfamiliar materials! It’s almost like walking through an academic studio in a way, but in a professional environment. I just enjoy walking around and finding new things, talking to people about them and what they are doing. It constantly kind of evolves. It’s not a staged, curated environment—it’s a very active environment. We explore amazing ideas every day.
What's your favorite restaurant (in NYC or elsewhere)?
I like very specific dishes at specific restaurants. The miso-marinated black cod and oysters at Nobu; Jua, the Korean restaurant—I have no idea how they can get the duck to be so light. The lamb at Per Se is probably the most unique and joyful dish I’ve ever had. It tastes deeply comforting and grounding, yet at the same time elevated and mysterious like something you have never had before, a quality that I admire in design and architecture and really any form of art.