Architect, theater designer offers guide to his creativity
NEW YORK — The COVID19 pandemic cut the connections between people and emptied the spaces they met. For award-winning architect and theater designer David Rockwell, it struck at the very heart of his work.
From designing KAOS Nightclub in Las Vegas to transforming Los Angeles’ historic Union Station at the Oscars, creating spaces where people gather has always been the focus. Now that idea was actually dangerous.
During his first Zoom meeting with newly remote members of his 250-person staff, Rockwell began with some grim humor against a backdrop of a frightened, locked-down city.
“I opened up by saying, ‘Well, here’s the good news: At least we don’t depend on creating experiences to bring people together for a living.’ There was a sort of silence and I said, ‘I’m joking. Actually, that is what we do. So we need to figure out ways we can do that.’ ”
As the nation gingerly emerges from quarantine, Rockwell is offering exactly that in book form: “Drama” — a kind of mood board for the way Rockwell sees the world and many ideas for what a new postCOVID-19 world could look like.
“Drama” is firmly at the intersection of theater and architecture, using examples from inside and outside the firm to tease out six fundamental concepts both disciplines share: audience, ensemble, worlds, story, journey and impermanence.
“I’ve been thinking about this for sort of my whole adult life because I’ve never seen a boundary between architecture and theater,” Rockwell says. “It’s been more of a feedback loop for me.”
The book, written with Bruce Mau, is full of arresting images to explain the ideas. Like how his work designing the restaurant Nobu Downtown found creative ways around architectural restrictions or how the Spanish Steps in Rome are designed to pull the eye toward the sacred. He writes: “For me, design is about bringing people together and making them feel something.”
Infused throughout the book is a relentlessly optimistic view that life can be made better and more beautiful if we start by simply designing better spaces, especially where people meet.
“The act of making something is such a life-affirming thing,” says Rockwell, who is donating his share of the royalties from the book to The Actors Fund. “One of the things designers can do is actually help build a solution.”
The Rockwell Group designs everything from cafes to theater sets. Rockwell’s first Broadway show was “The Rocky Horror Show” in 2000, and the credits started piling up: “Hairspray,” “Legally Blonde,” “The Normal Heart” and “Tootsie,” among them. He won a Tony Award for “She Loves Me.”
His architecture affects his sets and vice versa. When he was designing JetBlue’s $800 million terminal in New York City, Rockwell persuaded the airline to consult with Tony-winning director-choreographer Jerry Mitchell to improve passenger movement.
The book illustrates a ranging, multidisciplinary mind, including interviews with architect Daniel Libeskind, music producer and composer Quincy Jones, museum director and curator Thelma Golden, playwright and actor Anna Deavere Smith, chef and humanitarian José Andrés, and Oscar-winning production designer Adam Stockhausen.
Rockwell has been thinking a lot about how we will emerge from lockdown and perhaps redefine what our public spaces mean, especially our open-plan offices.
“Post-COVID, I think movement patterns — choreography, understanding how people move, understanding adaptability — is going to be important for cities,” he says. “We’re in a period of redefinition.”
Rockwell sees the continued need for Zoom meetings as one thing that will endure after the pandemic, but is still a fan of in-person meetings, which can trigger collaborations and fresh ideas.
“All the planning that you put into designing something is to hopefully allow some spontaneous activities to happen,” he says. “It’s the 15 minutes in between meetings when you’re running into someone getting a cup of coffee where you may have an idea that’s not going to come from Zoom.”