The Architect Behind Superman's Hall of Justice (and Trump's Fed Gambit)
Special thanks to Feargus O'Sullivan for watching the shop while I was away. Don't miss his feature on Trump aesthetics and Rococo.
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Forbes
6 hours ago
- Forbes
Designer David Rockwell Has A Full Plate Of Restaurant Projects Ahead
The bar at the The View, the revolving restaurant in the Marriott Marquis Times Square Despite celebrating the 40th anniversary of his Rockwell Group design firm last year, star architect and designer David Rockwell seems unwilling to rest on his laurels. Although he's had a hand in crafting some of the world's most memorable spaces—particularly high-profile restaurants, hotels, and theater projects—he continues to seek out new challenges. The Interview, Part Two In part one of our interview, he reflected on his impressive career and talked about some of the considerations that go into building community around the table. In the second half of this discussion, he shines a spotlight on some of the Rockwell Group projects that are waiting in the wings. If it's there, I'm not sure I'm the one to see it because I'm so focused on what we're doing. (pauses) Maybe one signature is that they look better full than empty. That may be true about every restaurant, but I think we very much look at what a restaurant is like at the height of walking through it, and what it's like sitting down. If you spend money evenly on a project, you don't get highlights and lowlights. You have to have a strategy about where to put a disproportionate amount of the resources, and where you're going to create those landmarks. If the client is interested in artwork, you have to figure out how to embrace that. I had been going to the original Union Square Cafe for about 15 years before we did the second one, so I was really a student of it. We made a model of the new space and re-created every piece of artwork that [owner] Danny [Meyer] had collected to scale. With tweezers, we set them by each banquette [in the model]. We were creating an entirely new space that was channeling the DNA of the original. At The Corner Store, the owner really wanted to use New York photography, and we were very involved with where it goes, how it's mounted, and how to orchestrate it. I'm more interested in the things that have remained. The very first restaurant I did was all about movement and choreography. It was about materiality; I brought in a costume designer from Santa Fe to make a silk mural. What has stayed is my sense of curiosity, my appreciation. I'm a little less in a hurry. I really take in the moments—how profound it is to create places that people enjoy. We had done the original W Union Square, and now we got to redo it, so we had long thoughts there. My observation about Union Square now versus 22 years ago was that there are things that really relate to the grid of New York, and others that relate to the changeable explosion of color that happens in Union Square—for instance, the chalk art, which we translated to the carpet. Seahorse, the restaurant in the W Union Square We engaged Artemest, a group that connects you to Italian artisans. The light fixtures were made by different artisans, many of them from Milan, including a beautiful mosaic piece that gives the bathrooms a kind of sheen. They're high gloss and have an elevated sense of ritual. I think ritual is very important—dining is very much a set of rituals. One person's version of humor is another person's pain in the neck. I think we design places with beauty in mind, with flexibility. I think the unexpected relates to humor—juxtapositions create opportunities. Hairspray was my second Broadway show, and when I met with the director for the first presentation, I filled the conference room with lots and lots of sketches and designs. He looked at all of it, put his arm around me, and said, 'Why don't we take everything out of the room except for those things that make you fall in love with Tracy Turnblad?' It was a real lesson. The environment doesn't want to be in the foreground, and I think that's sort of true about humor. You want to create the setting and the context for it, but not solve the whole problem. I'd like to be involved with the Olympics—that would be great, having been to the Olympics in Paris, and being a fan of the Olympics. I think there's something about bringing people together to celebrate excellence. There are a million design problems—problems I've solved—about movement, choreography, and sense of place. I think it's to create experiences in places that make the world more connected. It's true, and even when we do offices, the parts that I talk about are those that [relate to] connection. I think that's what drove me to architecture—the idea of creating these temporal communities. We won't take a restaurant project if someone wants it to look like something we've done before. Each restaurant is a different adventure, a chance to dive into what that chef or operator wants. It's amazing to create places. During COVID, we made T-shirts and bags that said, 'Buildings are memory machines,' and I think that's really true.
Forbes
10 hours ago
- Forbes
Unlikely Destination For Design And Art Lovers: New Harmony, Indiana
UNITED STATES - JUNE 09: Atheneum, New Harmony, Indiana. Architect: Richard Meier (Photo by Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images) Getty Images New Harmony, a small town perched on the Wabash river in southwest Indiana, is a very unlikely destination for design lovers. But those who make the trip — two hours drive from both Louisville, KY and St. Louis, MO and three hours from Indianapolis, IN and Nashville, TN – will not be disappointed. This rural town of about 800 people, many of whom get around via golf cart, boasts buildings by Philip Johnson and Richard Meier, public art by French sculptor Jacques Lipchitz, Anglo-German sculptor Ralph Beyer and American sculptor Don Gummer, and a park designed by a firm best known for their work on MoMA's sculpture garden. Philip Johnson's Roofless Church is set in a garden with gates by French sculptor Jacques Lipchitz License agreement: Alex Morgan Imaging This is all thanks to Jane Blaffer Owen, an oil heiress from Houston (her father was one of the founders of a company that's now ExxonMobil and her grandfather established the company that ultimately became Texaco), whose husband, Kenneth Dale Owen was a descendent of New Harmony's founders. Soon after they were married, Kenneth brought his new bride to his home town; she fell in love with New Harmony and dedicated her life to its preservation and revitalization, earning many many accolades along the way, including Commander of the British Empire, bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II. Dedication of the Roofless Church with Jane Blaffer Owen and Kenneth Dale Owen, unknown photographer, May 1, 1960 Historic New Harmony; University of Southern Indiana It seems random but isn't: Jane's mother, Sarah Campbell Blaffer, was a passionate art lover and collector whose eponymous foundation debuted in 1964 with the mission of 'sharing great works of art with people in communities far from major art museums.' The family were long-time supporters of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and, in 1947, Sarah established the Robert Lee Blaffer foundation at the museum, in honor of her late husband (Jane's father). A few years later, Jane's brother John, and his wife Camilla, made a large contribution to the museum which resulted in the construction of the Robert Lee Blaffer Memorial Wing. Today the Sarah Campbell Blaffer collection is shown in conjunction with the museum, with works from the collection exhibited in dedicated galleries there. Bonnie Pollan left, David Boot center and his wife Kelley Bott look over paintings from the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Tuesday, March 19, 2013, in Houston . ( James Nielsen / Houston Chronicle ) (Photo by James Nielsen/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images) Houston Chronicle via Getty Imag Jane knew of the the architect Philip Johnson through her friends Dominique and John de Menil, who were noted patrons of art and design, and huge fans of modernism in all its forms. In 1948, the de Menil's tapped Johnson to design their Houston home. It was his first residential commission, and was completed in 1950. They filled it with what was widely considered to be one of the most important art collections in the country, and entertained often. Philip Johnson, in front of the glass house he designed for himself in New Canaan, Ct, Fairfield County. (Photo By: David McLane/NY Daily News via Getty Images) NY Daily News via Getty Images But Jane apparently didn't meet Johnson until the mid 1950s, and in 1957 she commissioned him to design the Roofless Church. She also arranged for the French artist Jacques Lipchitz to create the gilded bronze gates at the ceremonial entry of the walled enclosure. License agreement: Alex Morgan Imaging Several years prior, Jane had read about Lipchitz's work in an art magazine, and a maquette of one of his sculptures caught her eye. She reached out to him and had three bronze castings made of the piece. One occupies a place of honor underneath the Roofless Church structure, the other two went to the Church of Notre-Dame-de-Toute-Grace in France and the Iona Abbey in Scotland. Descent of the Holy Spirit (1946–55) by Jacques Lipchitz Historic New Harmony Over time, Jane added additional sculptures, memorials and a fountain to the Roofless Church site. They include: Pieta by Stephen De Staebler, Breath of God by Connecticut sculptor Mark Mennin, William Schickel's Grandparents' Baptismal Fountain and Ewa Żygulska's Polish Memorial . Pieta, a sculpture by California artist Stephen De Staebler Courtesy of Visit Posey County Jane met Paul Tillich, a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher, through Jacques Lipchitz. In 1963 he visited New Harmony to dedicate a site, across the street from the Roofless Church, that would ultimately be a park named in his honor. New York landscape architects Zion & Breen, who had worked with Philip Johnson on the design for New York's Museum of Modern Art sculpture garden, were tapped to design this space as well. It is set with large granite stones inscribed with passages from Tillich's writings (engraved by English letterer Ralph Beyer) and a bronze bust of Tillich by the American abstract sculptor James Rosati. Tillich's ashes were interred here in 1966, a year after New Harmony was designated a National Historic Landmark. Bust of Paul Tillich by American abstract sculptor James Rosati. Courtesy of Historic New Harmony 1979 brought the debut of the Atheneum by Richard Meier & Associates, which contains Historic New Harmony's visitors' center. The porcelain, glass and steel structure was the first major commission for Meier, and earned him a host of awards including the American Institute of Architects National Honor Award for Achievement of Excellence in Architectural Design. Meier's original drawings and architectural model of the building are part of the permanent architecture collection at New York's Museum of Modern Art. License agreement: Alex Morgan Imaging Courtesy of Historic New Harmony Don Gummer's Fountain of Committment sculpture is a focal point of Church Park, constructed in 1996 (fun fact: Gummer is married to Meryl Streep). Fountain of Committment by Don Gummer Courtesy of Historic New Harmony Finally, New Harmony has not one, but two labyrinths. The Cathedral Labyrinth and Sacred Garden is a replica of the 12th century Chartres Cathedral outside of Paris, France. It was designed by local treasure Ken Schuette, a landscape architect and professor emeritus of Purdue University. His architectural work has also included concept planning for renovation of the Pentagon and serving as project architect for the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorial restorations in Washington, D.C. The Cathedral Labyrinth, designed by Ken Schuette, with The Atheneum, by Richard Meier, in the background. Courtesy of Historic New Harmony The Harmonist Labirynth was originally designed by the Rappites, a religious German society, and dates to the early 1800s. When the Rappites left the area, the labirynth was not maintained, and deteriorated over time. An early aughts restoration, based on archival information, returned it to its previous glory, complete with a stone Rappite temple in the center. License agreement: Alex Morgan Imaging The best part is that all of the above can be accessed free of charge. Many are specially lit at night, offering different, often dramatic, almost made-for-instagram views. For more information about New Harmony, and a plethora of resources, go to Visit New Harmony and the Robert Lee Blaffler Foundation.
New York Times
10 hours ago
- New York Times
To Understand the Delacorte Theater Renovation, Peek Inside This Rowhouse
When the architect Stephen Chu bought a rowhouse in Ridgewood, Queens, more than 20 years ago, the neighborhood was far enough off the radar and cheap enough to be an architectural playground for a young designer. The two-family brick house, with faint outlines of the old-fashioned decorative shutters long removed, was across from a warehouse on a quiet street. Mr. Chu bought it with his partner at the time for $380,000. 'We broke up and I kept the house,' he said. Mr. Chu, 54, now has a portfolio filled with landmark designs, including the newly renovated Delacorte Theater in Central Park, which is set to reopen on Aug. 7 with a production of Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night.' He said his home was 'never intended to be my architectural showpiece.' Still, his decades of home renovations in Ridgewood reflect a thoughtful approach to preservation. The Delacorte was built in 1962 as a 'pop-up,' in Mr. Chu's words, and he and his team at Ennead Architects, where he is a partner, took pains to spare hawthorn roots when trenching the site. 'Central Park is a scenic landmark, so the trees are protected,' he said. Cracked structural footings, some without rebar, received new jackets of reinforced concrete. A soaring torqued canopy now cantilevers over the entry gates and box office. The redwood ribbed siding that now hides the grandstand is a variegated patchwork of locally sourced water tower staves salvaged from old tanks. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
