David Rockwell Quotations

Portable designs have the power to transform unused public spaces into dynamic environments that build and invite communal experiences.

The design of a restaurant should embrace the identity of the chef, the nature of the cuisine, and the context of the restaurant itself.

The color and spectacle of Mexico's streets sparked my interest in community driven space and experience, a passion that I began to develop while studying architecture at Syracuse University and then at the Architectural Association School in London. Having been immersed in such a diverse array of lively environments, it would be impossible for me not to use these memories and experiences as inspiration for my work.

Play and transformation were a bit part of my childhood - using whatever materials were at our disposal, my brothers and I would constantly build and create fantasy worlds.

My work is strongly rooted in place and memory, in personal, formative experiences that took shape within very different environments.

Good restaurant design is about achieving equilibrium between the food, service, and design - in effect, telling a complete story.

Technology should be used to create unforgettable experiences that enhance our natural and built environments, transforming them in newly meaningful ways.

But what makes my job so great is there's no one answer that's right for every restaurant.

In our highly mediated, technologically driven world, we're all looking for meaningful ways to connect. This has constantly inspired me to create environments full of lively, immersive, experiential elements specifically crafted to foster human connection.

Briefs need limitations and invitations

Every project is an opportunity to learn, to figure out problems and challenges, to invent and reinvent.

I like entertainment and think mastery is good, though I don't feel like a master. If a theme means having a story that's legible, then that's certainly what we do. But we don't treat design as an add-on layer.

We're showing the romance of travel at a different scale -- not at the level of a whole building, but as a series of experiences on the inside, on a scale that doesn't try and compete with the Saarinen building.

I don't think of myself as a brand. Branding to me feels like a position or identity that's frozen in time. I'm more interested in transitions.

For me the most interesting part of theater is the relationship between the audience and the performer. In creating a theater, you get to mold essentially, out of raw clay, what that relationship's going to be. That's an interesting thing you don't get to do on Broadway.

It creates a kind of landmark that people know when they go to Rosa. It's almost like an oasis. It's kind of cool; it orients you.

What we've done (in Detroit) is created a movie set so it gives movie-goers a chance to enter a space that feels like a sound stage and in fact, is very sound-stage-like in how it's set up, ... But the set that you're entering into is a collage of both existing and historical Detroit buildings.

You have to think of a restaurant as a series of impressions. But what makes my job so great is there's no one answer that's right for every restaurant.

The key is to have a kind of core DNA - a series of pieces that are part of the look of the restaurant, that change and morph based on conditions in each case.