Architect David Rockwell Looks to Redesign the World
BEVERLY SCHUCH, HOST (voice-over): To list the visit variety of David Rockwell's creations would take at least 10 pages. But to sum up his impact, you only need three words -- the big wow. (on camera): What is the big wow?</s>DAVID ROCKWELL, PRESIDENT, ROCKWELL GROUP: I think the big wow is a phrase that's been used to describe a sense of amazement as you arrive in a space. And it may not be the first thing that you see. Radio City Music Hall, for instance, you actually enter into quite a low space and as you move into the main lobby with that grand stair, the space unfolds in an incredible way, in an inspiring way. So I think the big wow is sort of your first impression that draws you into a space.</s>SCHUCH: Is that your mission? That's what you're striving for is to get the public to stop and say wow?</s>ROCKWELL: It's a goal. On some projects, that may be, there may be a quieter goal than that. I think that's dialed up or dialed down depending on the project. Look at that. That is cool.</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): David Rockwell stands at the intersection of theater, architecture and magic, a kind of Houdini who sees an assignment as an invitation to take reality and turn it into a space where anything is possible.</s>ROCKWELL: That's the size of the media cockpit? That's incredible.</s>SCHUCH: Loew's hired him to put some magic back into movie going. He gave them an extravagant $21 million multiplex in Times Square. Traditional Native American elements explode with texture and colors at the Mohican Sun Casino in Connecticut. And he defined the razzle dazzle dining experience at nearly 40 Planet Hollywood restaurants around the world.</s>ROCKWELL: I didn't see it as doing anything new. I see there being a long history of architects who were interested in theatrical use of the space. So, you know, I think of the coliseum as one of the great theatrical spaces. So maybe I was really fortunate that I didn't see it as anything new. To me it was just taking what was important to me and my passions and finding an outlet for them.</s>SCHUCH: The outlets of David's passions take on many sizes and shapes. In one instance, Rockwell took a subtle touch when he introduced a new look for the traditional Japanese restaurant.</s>DREW NIEPORENI, PRESIDENT, MYRIAD RESTAURANT GROUP: What I really wanted David to do was give it a personality so that people wouldn't come in and do one of these, you know, well, where's number one, which one is</s>SCHUCH: And then there's the sleek Ian Trager (ph) Hotel W. In midtown Manhattan, where a subtle weave of natural elements makes a big city hotel feel as restful as a desert spa. (on camera): You don't want to have a signature name? If people walk into a place, you don't really want them to say oh, obviously, this is a David Rockwell project?</s>ROCKWELL: I would like not only not to have a signature style, I don't even want to have a signature project type. It's one of the reasons why as a group we're constantly looking for new building types, whether it's a theater or a stadium or in the case of Grand Central, a train terminal. It's trying to find something new and exciting that gets our creative juices going. And a lot of energy goes into finding new sources of inspiration.</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): Rockwell's initial inspiration happened when he was 10 years old. It was his first visit to a Broadway show.</s>ROCKWELL: I was taken by a friend that actually wasn't my father or my mother. They sent me into New York to see "Fiddler On the Roof" and it was unbelievable.</s>SCHUCH (on camera): Did that do it?</s>ROCKWELL: Yeah. I was hooked. I knew that I felt this was the most compelling form of storytelling that I'd ever seen and Borg Severenson (ph) actually has been a big influence on me, the person who was a set designer for that. And his ability to create these kaleidoscopic moving pictures was definitely influential.</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): Coming up, we'll find out how masseuses, ball playing dogs and Count Dracula convinced this man he could redesign the world. Architect David Rockwell is next on PINNACLE.</s>SCHUCH (on camera): Oh, that's wonderful. That's like a Las Vegas show, you know? So is there a metaphor here?</s>ROCKWELL: Well, I don't know if there's a metaphor. There's some ideas here which are interesting and I think the idea is taking things you've seen before that you understand a certain way, and a kaleidoscope kind of rejiggles them and presents them in a whole new way.</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): Ideas are the currency of the Rockwell Group. Everything about the working atmosphere is intended to help the staff relax and create. A masseuse comes regularly, pets are always welcome.</s>ROCKWELL: What a good girl. We're on two floors and the idea of this office is it's really about collaboration. So there's all kinds of notions about architecture. There's sort of architect a single hauteur and there's architect if someone who has a particular style. What we're much more about is collaboration. So when you walk around, you'll see 10 to 20 projects being worked on.</s>SCHUCH: The creative folk are always busy on fascinating stuff. But curiously, Rockwell says big budget projects don't always translate to big bucks in the bank. (on camera): Give me a growth rate over the past three or five years. How much have you grown each year?</s>ROCKWELL: We've grown, in the past five years, probably about 300 percent.</s>SCHUCH: And year to year growth?</s>ROCKWELL: It hasn't been year to year. It's been, you really can only look at it over five years because it's been, it's been sort of steady growth but it kind of bumped up and then we've actually tried to, and we have intentionally kept the size of the firm down. We've grown nowhere near as quick as we could.</s>SCHUCH: Have you ever not made money as a firm year to year?</s>ROCKWELL: Sure.</s>SCHUCH: What was the worst time?</s>ROCKWELL: Well, I'd say, you know, as a growing business, architecture is not the best business to go into if your motivation is money. There's a lot, a lot of better ways to make a lot more money quicker. So my motivation really isn't money and there has been years where, you know, we haven't made anything.</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): But this year promises to be a banner one for the Rockwell Group, with several projects expected to top $100 million each. In designing the new stadium for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the designers are thinking hard about the history of the team and what it means to the city, as well as creating a space that can be used on more than just game day. Building a memorial big enough to contain the dreams of sports fans is a weighty task and something David Rockwell understands. He's a die hard Chicago Bears fan. He also built the Coca-Cola rooftop at Turner Field in Atlanta, named for the founder of</s>CNN. (on camera): Tell me about that Coke bottle and what it's made of. I mean do you just laugh every time you see it?</s>ROCKWELL: The first game I went to at Turner Field, a home run was hit, that Coke bottle went off and it was just hysterical. I mean people, the thing that makes it work, I think, ultimately, it authenticity. And authenticity in design is about really understanding the core culture. And in the case of the Coke bottle it's made out of baseballs, home plate, cleats. It's made out of all sports paraphernalia all from the Braves. And so the team embraces is. They go up there, the fans embrace it.</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): Initially, Rockwell had no notion of becoming an architect. His first ambition was to be a concert pianist, until he got bored with the solitary demands of music. When his stepfather moved the family to Mexico, the 11-year-old David became fascinated with the vibrant culture, brilliant colors and exotic spaces.</s>ROCKWELL: And it was at that time that more and more structures were being built in Mexico that intrigued me and I started to think about what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to come east and sort of architecture, it wasn't one of those immediate decisions. It kind of evolved. But I just moved away from music and started to move towards theater, actually, and that's what led me into architecture. And I took a year off of school and got a job working for a Broadway lighting designer as an assistant and worked on theater design with this wonderful guy, Roger Morgan, and it was, he lit "Dracula," I don't know if you saw that, with Frank Langella (ph), a really talented man. And started to get a feel for the fact that architecture could incorporate my love of theater and went back to finish my degree at Syracuse University was very different point of view.</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): To some purists, David Rockwell larger than life architecture is frivolous. But the country's trendiest restaurants couldn't care less what the critics say. As far as they're concerned, the more "wow," the better. A week and a half to opening night. Workmen are racing to finish the new Rosa Mexicana restaurant on New York's Upper West Side. The wow factor here, an unforgettable waterfall and glittering red staircase. When PINNACLE returns, how a family tragedy compelled Rockwell to use his passion for light, design and theatrics to help confront one of society's most ravaging enemies, AIDS.</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): The super models are here. So are the belly dancers and snake charmers. The cause is DIFFA, the Design Industry Foundation Fighting AIDS, he catering courtesy of Nobou (ph) and the ambiance courtesy of David Rockwell. The party may look like great fun, but to Rockwell the fight against AIDS is deadly serious and very personal. (on camera): What do you think was your biggest obstacle that you've had to overcome?</s>ROCKWELL: Probably the death of my brother. The reason that was such a difficult obstacle is he died of AIDS and I was at an age where I was very aware of what was happening and so, you know, as someone who tries to live my life believing that kind of passion and energy can overcome pretty much any obstacle, that was an obstacle that, you know, was insurmountable.</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): Rockwell has had his share of obstacles to overcome. His father died in a plane crash when David was just two years old. His mother, a former Vaudeville choreographer, died when David was 15. And his stepfather, who adopted and raised David and his four brothers and whose name they bear, died just a few weeks ago. Yet despite those tragedies, Rockwell focuses on the positive.</s>ROCKWELL: My perception of my childhood is actually really happy and that, that probably has to do with the real support network I had with my brothers. We were incredibly close and losing my dad very early on, losing my mom at 15, you know, were tragic beyond words. I mean I was so close to my mom. But in a way, it brought the five of us together as brothers as a very, very strong team.</s>SCHUCH (on camera): But you don't remember it as a tragic childhood?</s>ROCKWELL: No, not at all. I remember an incredibly happy childhood, sort of punctuated by impossible to comprehend sadness, moments of sadness and loss but with an ability to go to a group of people, to feel loved and help deal with that.</s>SCHUCH: How does a 15-year-old boy cope with that, the grief?</s>ROCKWELL: It was a tough time. It was a tough, really tough couple of years. I mean I was very protective of her. I couldn't understand it.</s>SCHUCH: Were you angry?</s>ROCKWELL: I was furious. I was furious at her, I was furious at the hospital.</s>SCHUCH: Have you resolved it?</s>ROCKWELL: I'd love her to be here.</s>SCHUCH: What do you miss most about her?</s>ROCKWELL: Well, I mean of all the people in the world who would be thrilled to see me doing what I'm doing.</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): Today, Rockwell shares his success with his new family, wife film director Marsha Kirkley (ph) and their baby son Sam.</s>ROCKWELL: Marsha and I met on a blind date.</s>SCHUCH (on camera): Oh, no. They never work.</s>ROCKWELL: Yeah. We met on a blind date.</s>SCHUCH: How many years ago?</s>ROCKWELL: Eight. And our first date was a coffee shop. It was a lunch date in case neither one, you know, we figured we'll go on a lunch date. If it didn't work out, it was a really exit.</s>SCHUCH: And how did it work?</s>ROCKWELL: It worked really well.</s>SCHUCH: It obviously did, but did you know it then?</s>ROCKWELL: I knew I was really intrigued. I didn't have an agenda that I was going to get married, have a kid, have two and a half cars. So I was not meeting here with a particular agenda. But I was definitely taken and was sort of swept off my feet by her.</s>SCHUCH: What attracted you?</s>ROCKWELL: The first thing that attracted me to her was her sort of quiet confidence, which I found very reassuring. She obviously was beautiful, really smart. But she had kind of an inner quietness that I found very reassuring.</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): The couple exchanged vows in a secret wedding on Valentine's Day before a grand total of just two witnesses.</s>ROCKWELL: It's nice to balance a really outward going professional life with a very quiet, centered personal life and I'm very lucky to have someone to do that with. Are you there for opening night?</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): David and Marsha have a loft in Manhattan's Tribeca and a house in the country. And already, David can see another budding architect in the family.</s>ROCKWELL: He's very, very interested in lights, you know? He just seems amazed by the quality of light looking around and his kind of innocence at looking in the world, at the world has made me approach things differently, maybe a little less quick to assume we've seen it all, you know, open to new ideas.</s>SCHUCH: You are gaga. You are ridiculous around this little baby.</s>ROCKWELL: Yeah. I love this little guy.</s>SCHUCH: You waited a long time.</s>ROCKWELL: Yeah. Well, I never assumed I was necessarily going to have children, which I think is what makes it so wonderful. I think if it's part of your plan, then it's just part of your plan. Where if it's something that you think about and then happens, it's just extraordinary. It really, really has changed my life.</s>SCHUCH: In a moment, the little kid who lived for the theater gets to design the most famous theatrical palace of all. David Rockwell's dreams come true, when PINNACLE returns. END VIDEOTAPE)</s>ROCKWELL: Can you imagine what this drive's going to be like in two years when it's at the new theater?</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): David and Marsha Rockwell are being chauffeured to Oscar ceremonies at the historic Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. It's more than just a glamorous night out. Rockwell has been chosen to design the new, permanent home for Oscar on Hollywood Boulevard.</s>ROCKWELL: So, we'll be able to get our car with that? We're given our dream project basically.</s>SCHUCH (on camera): Really?</s>ROCKWELL: You know, growing up being such a big fan of the theater and such a big fan of the movies, this is like a dream come true. It's not an easy dream come true.</s>SCHUCH: Yeah.</s>ROCKWELL: This is, it's technically, I would say, probably the most complex theater ever built. It's basically a TV studio inside a theater so it's very advanced in terms of the capability of the theater and it's 3,300 seats.</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): It's two years to opening night and there are hundreds of meetings and thousands of details.</s>ROCKWELL: These niches that we've built in are perfect poster cases for Academy art and last night Bruce Davis said they just bought a whole big poster collection. So I think he'll like that.</s>SCHUCH: The new Hollywood showplace will be the second theater designed by the Rockwell Group. In 1999, Rockwell and his team created the permanent home for Cirques de Soleil (ph) in Orlando, Florida.</s>ROCKWELL: We also had an interesting situation where Cirques de Soleil was a brand in a culture that had never built a freestanding building. So they were very protective of that culture and that brand. The Academy Awards is very similar in that the Academy Awards is really not a physical place, it's an idea, and we're turning it into a physical place.</s>SCHUCH: Rockwell is just as excited about another work in progress, the $120 million children's wing at the Montefiore Hospital named after astronomer Carl Sagan. David's goal is to create an entertaining and engaging space, one you don't often find in a children's hospital.</s>ROCKWELL: The design is not just about what it looks like the first time, but if you're really trying to engage children, they can relate to the wall just on the basis of loving the marbles or they can start to understand that we're all really made up of the same elements, which is really Carl Sagan's primary goal is to understand how we relate to the rest of the world and how we relate to the cosmos.</s>SCHUCH: The importance of balance pervades everything David designs. (on camera): Are you conscious of your design overwhelming the food?</s>ROCKWELL: Yeah, very much so. I think that you need to -- and it's not just restaurants. I think it's, if you're doing a home and the home seems like it doesn't belong to the owner, to me it always feels like a suit that just doesn't fit well.</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): David Rockwell now turns down more work than he accepts. If you want to get his attention, pitch him a project he's never done before.</s>ROCKWELL: At the top of my wish list is probably an airport.</s>SCHUCH (on camera): What's wrong with airports now?</s>ROCKWELL: I can't think of anything that's right with them. They're so not about celebrating arrival, which I think is the opportunity. For us finding kind of the hidden opportunity in each project is really the challenge.</s>SCHUCH (voice-over): Perhaps the ultimate challenge for an architect who's so influenced by the theater is the theater. When "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" opens on Broadway in November, it will star Joan Jett with set designs by David Rockwell.</s>ROCKWELL: I didn't really know the show. I'm like the one human being on the planet who was not really familiar with the show. So Marsha and I rented the movie. I got to the movie and I looked at her and I said, you know, it ain't "The Music Man." There's no trombone so I met with the director and I said well, I'd love to work with you and I'm excited about it, but I've got to tell you, it's not a project I've known and loved, you know, but I'd like to get to know it. And I found that speaking to him about why he wanted to do the show, so that the design kind of grows out of his philosophy, was very intriguing to me and I really kind of fell in love with doing it.</s>SCHUCH: "Rocky Horror" might be his most ambitious venture yet, says Rockwell, but taking risks and making magic are what David Rockwell's architecture is all about.</s>ROCKWELL: The biggest, biggest challenge we have is to come up with a big idea with a client and hold onto enough of that big idea that at the end of the day, it still holds true. The thing about design is if you believe architecture is this pristine art form and nothing can invade it, I think you're in for a lot of disappointment, as opposed to seeing architecture as a process about creating places where people really are amazed and engaged and therefore the client's part of that process.</s>SCHUCH (on camera): And you're the keeper of the flame. You've got to keep the idea alive.</s>ROCKWELL: Listen, if I get to the point where I think it's not worth it, imagine how my team and my client feels. So, my job is to continue to rally enthusiasm and you want to know something? There's more days that I get to the end of the day and realize I have a dream job.