For Immediate Release: June 6, 2007
Media Contacts: Emma Filar, Marketing & Communications Associate
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Spotlight on Design with David Rockwell: News Release
Washington, DC—Architect David Rockwell, founder and CEO of the New York-based Rockwell Group, will present his new book SPECTACLE and discuss how the power of visually breathtaking public performances and spectacles has influenced his work on Thursday, June 21 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm at the National Building Museum. Following the presentation, Reed Kroloff, director-designate of the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Museum in Bloomfield, MI, will join Rockwell to discuss the role of these events in the architectural realm.
In SPECTACLE (Phaidon Press, 2006), Rockwell, in collaboration with graphic designer Bruce Mau, explores the allure of temporary, larger-than-life events that take place around the globe through an architect's lens. From the Maha ("Great") Kumba Mela bathing ritual in India that attracts 70 million participants every 12 years, to the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York, to the massive Brussels Flower Carpet made from fresh flowers is installed every two years, in SPECTACLE Rockwell considers what it is about these "shared, live experiences" that transform not only the way we see the world, but also how we connect with each other. The book features more than 200 stunning color photographs and interviews from award winning "spectacle-producers" such as Julie Taymor, Steve Wynn, Quincy Jones, John Waters, Muhammad Ali, Simon Doonan, Guy Laliberte, and Kurt Andersen. This dynamic visual essay presents an extraordinary collection of 60 far-flung and fleeting events around the world including Washington, DC.
Reed Kroloff will lead a conversation with David Rockwell discussing how these real-time, real-space events have shaped Rockwell's design philosophy. For more than 25 years, Rockwell has worked on a widely diverse array of projects – from hotels to hospitals, restaurants to airport terminals, and Broadway set designs to consumer products. For each project, Rockwell examines the elements of spectacle – transformation, immersion, permanence vs. temporary and entrance – to create emotionally engaging environments. The discussion will highlight examples from his own work such as a new terminal in New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for JetBlue Airways; the set design for the new Broadway musical Legally Blonde; Imagination Playground, an innovative public-private partnership between Rockwell Group and the New York City Parks Department; and his modern vision of a Shakespearean theater as seen in the Museum's current exhibition Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespearean Theater for the 21st Century. Following the program, Rockwell will sign copies of SPECTACLE, which will be available in the Museum's award-winning Shop.
About David Rockwell
David Rockwell is the founder and CEO of Rockwell Group, an award winning, cross-disciplinary 200-person architecture and design practice. Based in New York, Rockwell Group specializes in hospitality, culture, theater and film design. Commissions include the JetBlue Airways terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport; the Elinor Bunin Film Center at Lincoln Center; a lobby and restaurant renovation at the Four Seasons in Washington, DC; Chambers hotel and Town restaurant (New York); W New York and W Union Square; the Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards ceremony (Los Angeles); the Broadway musicals "Hairspray," "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," and "Legally Blonde"; Sobella at Project City Center (Las Vegas); and numerous restaurants around the globe including Nobu Fifty Seven, Country, Bar American, Café Gray in New York; Nobu (Hong Kong, Dallas, Dubai), Xen in Tokyo's Roppongi Hills, and Gordon Ramsay's Maze (London). His monograph, Pleasure: The Architecture and Design of Rockwell Group, was published by Universe, a division of Rizzoli Books in 2002. SPECTACLE, his new book with Bruce Mau, was published by Phaidon Press in October 2006.
About Reed Kroloff
Reed Kroloff is the director-designate of the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and an independent architectural consultant and commentator. Kroloff was dean of the Tulane University School of Architecture in New Orleans, Louisiana from fall 2004 through spring 2007. In 1995, he joined Architecture magazine, which, under his direction as editor-in-chief, received more awards for editorial and design excellence than any magazine of its type. Prior to joining Architecture, Kroloff was a tenured professor and assistant dean at Arizona State University, where he received the first-ever "Award for Academic Excellence" from the Arizona chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Kroloff has practiced architecture in Texas and Arizona and consulted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Ministry of Culture of the Federal Government of Mexico, the Whitney Museum, the University of Connecticut and Motown Center. He writes and lectures widely, visiting architecture schools and professional organizations across the country.
Registration
$12 Museum members and students; $20 nonmembers. Prepaid registration required. Walk-in registration based on availability. For more information, please visit the Spotlight on Design program page.
Spotlight on Design is an ongoing lecture series featuring architects and designers of distinction from around the world. Since its inception in 1997, the series has presented many of the world's premier design voices in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning and design, including Pritzker Prize Laureates Tadao Ando, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, I.M. Pei, and Glenn Murcutt, and other acclaimed designers such as Laurie Olin, Cesar Pelli, and Robert A.M. Stern. Spotlight on Design also highlights the important, cutting edge work of such firms as SHoP/Sharples Holden Pasquarelli, Asymptote, and Neil Denari.
Spotlight on Design is sponsored by Lafarge, the world leader in construction materials.
The National Building Museum is America’s leading cultural institution dedicated to advancing the quality of the built environment by educating people about its impact on their lives. Through its exhibitions, educational programs, online content, and publications, the Museum has become a vital forum for the exchange of ideas and information about the world we build for ourselves. Public inquiries: 202.272.2448 or visit www.nbm.org. Connect with us on Twitter: @BuildingMuseum and Facebook.
