Who

One of the most prominent architects and interior designers in the city, Rockwell is the man behind the look and feel of many of the city's most popular restaurants.

Backstory

Raised alternately in New Jersey and Mexico—his mother was a vaudeville dancer—Rockwell attended Syracuse before co-founding an architecture studio called Haverson-Rockwell Architects with Jay Haverson in 1984. Together they worked on designs for one-time hotspots like Tatou, Le Bar Bat, Sushi Zen, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Vong. Nine years later, he went off on his own and founded Rockwell Associates, creating a splash in 1994 with his design for Drew Nieporent and Nobu Matsuhisa's sushi hotspot Nobu. Rockwell has continued to design big-ticket restaurants ever since—but he's also branched out into hotel design, set design for Broadway plays, and more. Over the past decade, Rockwell's projects have been as varied as the Academy Awards' new Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, a renovation of Radio City Music Hall (with Hugh Hardy), interiors on Disney Cruise ships, and the Cirque du Soleil theatre in Orlando.

Of note

Rockwell is one of the city's most prolific restaurant designers and his cachet (and proven track record) keeps restaurateurs coming back again and again. Some of his more recent designs include Country (Geoffrey Zakarian), Kittichai, Café Gray (Gray Kunz), Bar Americain (Bobby Flay), Strip House (Peter Glazier) and the Drew Nieporent's Nobu satellites Nobu 57 and Nobu Next Door. In the 1990s, he branched out into set design in and worked on Hairspray, All Shook Up, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Legally Blonde. He's also handled a number of large hospitality projects over the years, including the W Hotel in Union Square and the Mohegan Sun casino.

One of his more unusual projects as of late was the design of the new JetBlue Terminal at JFK in 2006: He enlisted the help of Broadway choreographer and director Ted Mitchell to help "choreograph the ballet of pedestrian traffic" within the terminal. One big upcoming project for Rockwell: He's designing Richard Branson's Virgin Spa at Natirar in Peapack, NJ. The property will feature 76 rooms, a 225-seat ballroom, ten-acre organic farm, and two restaurants by Drew Nieporent.

In print

Rockwell has published two books, a retrospective called Pleasure: The Architecture Design of Rockwell Group and the Phaidon-published Spectacle, which he wrote with designer Bruce Mau.

Personal

He and his wife, former film producer Marcia Kirkley, have two children, Sam (born in 2000) and Lola (born in 2002). They live in a 3,200-square-foot loft in Tribeca with a dog and two cats. It features a roof deck with a hot tub in which Rockwell takes a nightly soak, and a rotating wooden chair for taking in the view. The family has a second home in New Paltz.

Board game

Rockwell sits on the board of Citymeals-on-Wheels, along with fellow restaurant industry bigs including Daniel Boulud, Dennis Riese, Nick Valenti, and Terrance Brennan. He's also on the board of the Public Theater, along with Andre Balazs, Nora Ephron, Liev Schreiber, and Ken Auletta.

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