Recently Opened

House Beautiful Apartment Showhouse

For Hearst’s sixth annual Designer Visions, Rockwell Group and House Beautiful have created a unique apartment out of a converted loft space in downtown Manhattan, envisioning the elegant home of a stylish couple recently transplanted from Amsterdam to New York to pursue their professional ambitions. The husband is a new media curator for the downtown Whitney Museum and the wife runs her own Japanese selvedge denim company from home. We infused the rooms with textures and furnishings from diverse style eras to express their creative fields, heritage, love of travel, and penchant for unique, vintage finds. The apartment’s interiors have been filmed in partnership with The 48 Hour Film Project and appear in the November issue of House Beautiful, which can be viewed here.

W Singapore - Sentosa Cove

This September, Singapore opened its first W Hotel: the W Singapore-Sentosa Cove. The Starwood property is situated on an exclusive island, just minutes from the city’s central business district and the world-famous shopping and dining of Orchard Road—successfully mixing urban culture with untamed nature and ivory beaches. Rockwell Group was in charge of all public and private spaces: the 240 guest rooms, two signature restaurants, the bar, lobby, and banquet hall. Throughout, design elements echo the lush, exotic surroundings: rosewood millwork, orchid-inspired wall, lighting, and furniture motifs, an indoor waterfall projecting colorful flower patterns, a swaying sculpture of illuminated grasses, and rooms accented with vivid purples and reds. A glamorous red carpet entryway and DJ booth in the main lobby space reflect the edgy, chic nature of the W brand within this memorable luxury experience.

The Library at The Public Theater

New narratives abound at The Public Theater, a landmarked building in downtown Manhattan that reopened this October. As part of an extensive renovation that includes a new façade, entrance, lobby, balconies, and staircase, Rockwell Group has designed The Library, a mezzanine bar and lounge featuring food by celebrated restaurateurs Andrew Carmellini and Luke Ostrom. What was formerly a 25-foot open ceiling space has been transformed into an intimate setting reminiscent of a secret corner in a library, recalling the building’s original use as the Astor Library when it first opened in 1854. Guests can drink and dine at handsome wooden communal tables or tuck into tufted-leather banquettes, before or after catching a show. An antique metal gate, industrial light fixtures, steel-framed bookcases displaying vintage scripts and theater props, and herringbone parquet floor all nod to the building’s more than 250-year-old history.

The Westin Palace, Madrid

To celebrate its centennial year, the regal Westin Palace, Madrid has undergone a thoughtful update of select public spaces by Rockwell Group Europe. Topped by an enormous stained-glass dome called La Cupola, the rotunda lobby and lounge space below is now lighter, brighter, and more refined: gray silk shades adorn the crystal lamps topping each table, existing armchairs and sofas have been reupholstered in Sanderson’s 1950’s-inspired cut velvet in jewel-toned greens, reds, and silvers, and the custom floral-patterned carpet echoes the lush vegetation depicted on the stained-glass dome. The renovation extends to the hotel’s four meeting rooms, where seating has been reupholstered in Jim Thompson’s Metallic Shell, a fabric designed by Rockwell Group. The rooms have also been repainted—three off-white, one red, all accented by metallic gray and champagne moldings—the latter embellished with wall texts by Spanish writer Julio Camba, artfully rooting the renovation in the local culture and history.

Imagination Playground at the 2012 Venice Biennale

Imagination Playground continues its European tour! From August 29 to November 25, an exhibition featuring our playground is being hosted in the U.S. Pavilion at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale in Italy. The theme of this year’s biennale is “Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good,” showcasing projects by architects, designers, planners, and everyday citizens interested in collaboration and bringing positive change to urban communities. Adults and children are given the opportunity to interact with the playground’s blue foam blocks at the Serra dei Giardini, which has inherited an Imagination Playground in a Cart donated by Rockwell Group. We are excited to continue demonstrating the universal appeal—and value—of play.

The Roundhouse at Beacon Falls

In the continuing restoration of this historic property in New York’s Hudson River Valley, the Roundhouse’s restaurant and lounge have now opened. In Swift restaurant, wooden tables surrounded by eye-catching red slipper chairs stand beneath exposed ceiling beams and handblown pendant fixtures—tastefully combining contemporary, rustic, and artisanal. A wall of floor-to-ceiling windows affords stunning views of the Fishkill Creek waterfall and the dining patio. The mood shifts more masculine in 2EM, the adjoining 50-seat lounge, where club chairs are leather-upholstered and tables are topped in concrete. A July 6 review by The New York Times rated the Roundhouse as “worth the trip.”

Set Design Projects

The musical adaptation of the British film Kinky Boots made its limited-engagement debut in Chicago from October 2 to November 4. The Bank of America Theatre hosted the production, featuring music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and a script from Harvey Fierstein’s book. Having previously worked with director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell on the hit musicals Hairspray, Catch Me If You Can, and Legally Blonde, Rockwell Group was thrilled to reunite with Mitchell as set designer for Kinky Boots, which comes to New York next. We also recently designed the set for the comedy Dead Accounts, written by Theresa Rebeck and starring Katie Holmes, which opened at the Music Box Theatre in New York on November 3.

Mega Cineplex

Mega Bangna, a super shopping and entertainment center in Bangkok, opened to great acclaim in April. For the design of the center’s cineplex, Rockwell Group Europe drew inspiration from a universe theme made up of asteroid and star shapes. Among the main attractions of the cineplex is a cinema with more than 120,000 square feet and offering 15 theaters (a total of 3,900 seats) plus VIP and digital lounges. There’s also Blu-O Rhythm, a stunningly blue-lit bowling alley with 24 lanes as well as 10 karaoke rooms, and the Sub-Zero Ice Skate Club, a 66,000-square-foot indoor skating rink.

Coming Soon

Nobu Hotel Caesars Palace, Las Vegas

This November, the premier Nobu Hotel Caesars Palace opens in Las Vegas. Rockwell Group continues its longstanding collaboration with the luxury brand as designer of this unique hotel at the epicenter of entertainment. Nobu’s signature philosophy and playful style has been combined with touches of Vegas glamour in the 181 guest rooms, which feature live-edge wood coffee tables, grass cloth wall coverings, lantern-like standing lamps, and Japanese-inspired artwork—all enlivened by bold pops of purple and teal. The hotel’s Nobu restaurant, complete with private dining pods and undulating screens that wrap around the space, offers an intimate, theatrical setting—a place that is as exciting to see as it is to dine and stay.

"Play Work Build," National Building Museum

Rockwell Group teams up with the National Building Museum in Washington, DC to present “Play Work Build,” a hands-on, interactive exhibition opening November 18. Items from the museum’s vast architectural toy collection will be displayed alongside our Imagination Playground foam blocks, revealing connections between early examples of play and its modern-day interpretation. Visitors of all ages are given the opportunity to build their own structures in varying scales, interact with virtual block play through an original installation designed by our LAB, and in doing so—invent new worlds of play.

Rockwell Group in Latin America

We’re building a stronger foothold in Central and South America, thanks to our recent partnership with Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos, based in Mexico City. We’re looking forward to expanding our reach in this part of the world and the opportunity to become more involved in innovative Latin projects.

National Center for Civil and Human Rights

The groundbreaking for the National Center for Civil and Human Rights took place on June 27 at Pemberton Place in Atlanta. The future museum’s mission is to confront human and civil rights issues and advocate justice. Rockwell Group has been commissioned for the museum’s exhibition design within the future three-story building, which will feature 18,000 square feet of gallery space.

New Imagination Playground Website Has Launched

A redesign of the Imagination Playground website launched this September, introducing a fresh look and providing new information about our expanding initiative. At www.imaginationplayground.com, find video and written testimonials on its impact and success, resources for parents and teachers, a blog and searchable online forum, research about the benefits of play in children’s development, and opportunities to purchase the playground set.