David Rockwell is an American architect and designer, who is the founder and CEO of Rockwell Group, based in New York with satellite offices in Madrid and Dubai. Long before turning his attention to architecture, David Rockwell harbored a fascination with immersive environments. Growing up in Chicago, Illinois, Deal, New Jersey and Guadalajara, Mexico, Rockwell was a child of the theater — his mother worked as a vaudeville dancer and choreographer and would 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 a Bachelor of Architecture degree and to his studies at the Architectural Association in London. These formative influences continue to have strong reverberations throughout his practice.
His monograph, Pleasure: The Architecture and Design of Rockwell Group, was published by Universe, a division of Rizzoli Books in 2002.
Spectacle by David Rockwell with Bruce Mau — a book examining the history and public fascination with larger-than-life manmade events — was published by Phaidon Press in October 2006.