TOP Interior Designer: David Rockwell

David Rockwell is known for his dramatic and spectacular designs which can be easily noticed in many fantastic, high-impact restaurants, malls, airline terminals, theater sets and even playgrounds. His works varies from the sleek interiors of Nobu and the W Hotels to the exuberant Mohegan Sun Casino, from the pop-tastic scenery for the Broadway musical Hairspray to the sublimely hilarious high-modern sets for Team America: World Police.

More than that, David Rockwell won the Presidential Design Award for his extraordinary work renovating New York’s Grand Central Station, and his firm, the Rockwell Group, is designing the interior for the JetBlue terminal at New York’s JFK Airport. Rockwell has published several books on his architectural and design process, including Pleasure and Spectacle — two qualities that abound in his work.

David Rockwell (born 1956) is an American architect and designer. He is the founder and President of Rockwell Group, a 250-person award winning, cross-disciplinary architecture and design practice based in New York City with satellite offices in Madrid and Shanghai.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Rockwell also spent part of his childhood in Deal, New Jersey and Guadalajara, Mexico. He was a child of the theater as his mother worked as a vaudeville dancer and choreographer. She sometimes cast him in community repertory productions.

Rockwell brought his passion for theater and an eye for the color and spectacle of Mexico to his architecture training at Syracuse University, where he received his Bachelor of Architecture. He also studied at the Architectural Association in London. These formative influences continue to shape his practice.

David founded Rockwell Group in 1984. Over the past 30 years, Rockwell Group has carved out a unique role encompassing multiple ideas, design styles, clients and project types.