Roman and Williams

Roman and Williams is an American-owned, New York-based multidisciplinary design studio known for its work on museums, hotels, restaurants, retail spaces, homes and product design. Founded in 2002 by principals Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch, the firm consists of four interconnected enterprises: Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors, an architecture and interior design firm; Roman and Williams Guild New York (RW Guild), a brick-and-mortar store and online retailer offering handmade high craft in furniture, accessories, and housewares by Roman and Williams Guild Original Designs and a guild of independent artists from around the world; La Mercerie, an award-winning French restaurant and bar helmed by executive chef Marie-Aude Rose; and Guild Gallery, an art gallery in SoHo showing established and emerging artists.

Known for what the Wall Street Journal called "slow design," with its emphasis on craft and substance, the firm undertakes building design, interior design, branding, as well as the design of custom furniture, lighting, tableware, glassware, and other home goods.

In 2011, the firm's principals, Standefer and Alesch, were recognized in Fast Company's list of "America's 50 Most Influential Designers." In 2014, they received the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum’s National Design Award for Interior Design. They went on to win The Wall Street Journal's 2017 Innovators Award in the Design category, and in 2018 the pair received the "Visionaries Award" from the Sir John Soane's Museum Foundation as well as an award for "Architecture" by Fashion Group International. They have made Architectural Digest's annual "AD 100" list 11 times since 2012, and Elle Decor’s A-List five times since 2013.

In 2016, Roman and Williams was commissioned to redesign the British Galleries at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which opened in March of 2020. This commission was the firm's first project in a museum. They were later commissioned to design an exhibition space for a special section of Frieze Masters 2023.

Firm history and projects
Standefer and Alesch's first residential design project was for Ben Stiller, who hired the pair to design his family's Los Angeles home after working with them on the set of his film Duplex, leading to the founding of their firm, Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors.

Named for the founders’ maternal grandfathers, the firm opened its first office on the lot of Paramount Pictures. In 2004, it relocated to New York and established its office on Lafayette Street before moving to Canal Street in 2023.

Roman and Williams has designed major residential projects for celebrity clients including Kate Hudson, Elisabeth Shue and Davis Guggenheim, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Other residential projects include the renovation and expansion of one of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Houses.

Standefer and Alesch view their own homes, in Manhattan and Montauk, as an expression of their interests, and the homes act as design laboratories and inspirations for the firm's projects. The New York Times called their East Fourth Street loft "an appealing hybrid, as if an apartment from the Apthorp had been reassembled by the furniture designers Pierre Chareau or Jean Prouve."

With a reputation as “luxury’s default designers of atmosphere” (the Financial Times), the firm has designed the interiors of more than a dozen hotels, including the Ace Hotel’s Brooklyn, Manhattan, and New Orleans locations; Freehand’s New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami locations; the Standard High Line, including The Standard Grill and the 18th Floor Club, also known as the Boom Boom Room; the Chicago Athletic Association; the NoMad London; Maison Estelle, a private members’ club in London; and its partner countryside property, Estelle Manor, a luxury hotel and private members’ club in Oxfordshire, England, for which they also restored the property’s historic Neo-Jacobean buildings and designed and built 20 ground-up structures.

The firm has designed two ground-up residential buildings. The first, at 211 Elizabeth Street in NoLiTa, was praised for its use of traditional, hand-laid brick. The second, The Fitzroy, was inspired by Art Deco architecture and is located in Chelsea, near the High Line.

Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors has also designed a number of restaurants and bars, including Upland, The Dutch, Lafayette, Le Coucou, Veronika, John Dory Oyster Bar, The Breslin, Simon and the Whale, and the firm’s own restaurant, La Mercerie, in New York; La Rotonde de la Muette in Paris; Octavius Bar in Milan; and Cantinery in Istanbul. Additionally, the firm designed the Tin Building by Jean-Georges, a 53,000-square-foot culinary complex featuring six full-service restaurants, six fast casual outlets, three bars, and private dining, housed in the former Fulton Fish Market in Manhattan’s Seaport neighborhood.

The firm's other completed projects include the design of the goop mrkt pop-up store, on which they worked with goop Creative Director Gwyneth Paltrow. Other projects include a mess hall on the new Facebook campus in Menlo Park, California, and the HuffPost Live studio set and offices in New York, which opened in Spring of 2012.

In 2014, Roman and Williams was commissioned to redesign the British Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York—an ambitious renovation project to create what the Museum called a "spectacular, narrative-rich, and profoundly sympathetic setting for the works of art." The firm designed ten galleries devoted to British decorative arts and sculpture of the early 16th through 19th century, including three historic interiors. The renovated British Galleries reopened in 2020, the year of The Met’s 150th anniversary.

Product design
Roman and Williams launched a product design division in September 2012. Their Roman and Williams Guild Original Design products—which include light fixtures, furnishings, tableware, glassware, and beyond—are designed and prototyped by Alesch and Standefer, who then partner with master artisans around the world to produce their pieces, all of which are made by hand, employing heritage techniques.

In celebration of their tenth year, the firm released a monograph, Things We Made, with Rizzoli, in October 2012, followed by the release of a Japanese edition in May 2014 with Graphic-Sha. The book shows the firm's work from the past decade, as well as the principals' previous work in film.

Awards

 * 2024—Architectural Digest Top 100 Designers
 * 2023—Architectural Digest Top 100 Designers
 * 2022—Architectural Digest Top 100 Designers
 * 2021—AHEAD Global 2021 Ultimate Accolade Award (NoMad London)
 * 2021—European Hotel of the Year (NoMad London)
 * 2021—Architectural Digest Top 100 Designers
 * 2021—Elle Décor A-List Designers
 * 2020—Elle Décor A-List Designers
 * 2020—Architectural Digest Top 100 Designers
 * 2019—Elle Décor A-List Designers
 * 2019—Architectural Digest Top 100 Designers
 * 2019—Hospitality Design Platinum Circle Award
 * 2019—AFAR Media Travel Vanguard Award
 * 2018—Architectural Digest Top 100 Designers
 * 2018 – ELLE DÉCOR  A-List Designers
 * 2018 – Soane Foundation Honors Award "Visionaries", Principals Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors
 * 2018 – Fashion Group International "Architecture Award", Principals Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of Roman and Williams
 * 2017 – WSJ Magazine "Design Innovators", Principals Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of Roman and Williams
 * 2017 – Awards for Hospitality, Experience and Design, "Restaurant" category winner, Le Coucou
 * 2017 – James Beard Award "2017 Best New Restaurant", Le Coucou
 * 2017 – Hospitality Design Awards "Lifestyle Public Space", Ace Hotel New Orleans
 * 2016 – Fast Company "100 Most Creative People in Business", Principals Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of Roman and Williams
 * 2016 – Architectural Digest Top 100 Designers
 * 2016 – Conde Nast Traveler "Top 10 Hotels in the United States, Hotel Emma
 * 2015 – Driehaus Foundation Preservation Award Winner, Chicago Athletic Association
 * 2015 – EuroShop Retail Design Award for "Best Store Design", Replay the Stage
 * 2015 – Gold Key Award for Excellence in Hospitality Design "Best Upscale Hotel", Chicago Athletic Association
 * 2014- Architectural Digest Top 100 Designers
 * 2014 – Wallpaper Magazine "Top 100 Designers", Principals Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of Roman and Williams
 * 2014 – Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for "Interior Design", Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors
 * 2013 – ELLE Décor A-List Designers
 * 2013 – Lawrence Israel Prize, Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors
 * 2013 – Eater Award "Stone Cold Stunner", Lafayette
 * 2012 – Architectural Digest " Top 100 Designers
 * 2011 – Fast Company FastCo Design's 50 Most Influential Designers, Principals Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of Roman and Williams
 * 2011 – Eater Award "Restaurant of the Year", The Dutch
 * 2010 – Palladio Award for Multi-Unit Residential Project, 211 Elizabeth Street
 * 2009 – Interior Design Best of Year Honoree, Boutique Hotel, Ace Hotel New York
 * 2009 – The New York Times "The Nifty 50" Principals Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of Roman and Williams
 * 2008 – Hospitality Design Magazine "Luxury Hotel Design" Finalist, Freehand New York