%20(2).jpg)
Before they were the husband-and-wife duo behind the New York–based design studio, shop, restaurant, and gallery that compose the Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors dominion, Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch made their names on the stage sets of Hollywood films. Building romantic architectural scenes for characters brought their attention to the historic buildings that were “being stripped into white boxes or torn down for new glass towers” in New York in the 1990s and 2000s, Alesch says. “For us, it was a drive to get involved in projects in older buildings to help save them—and to find clients on the same mission.”
In 2002, the designers took their partnership from behind the camera and into the real world. The studio’s first major project was a Los Angeles home for actor Ben Stiller, whom Alesch and Standefer had met on their set for Zoolander the year prior. Commissions continued to roll in, and this past November, the firm celebrated two decades of design with a blowout party at Manhattan’s Boom Boom Room, the exclusive nightclub atop the Standard Hotel—which, of course, features its own highly photogenic Roman and Williams interior.
“From the beginning, Stephen and I were pretty creative, artistic people that were less focused on design than we were on storytelling,” Standefer explains. “It grew organically to create a practice that was more about a philosophy of how to live.” One through line has been that enduring interest in history, though the couple is mindful of setting up their designs well for the future—that is, crafting spaces that are meant to last. “We’ll never design a 1,000-year building,” says Alesch, “but, I think 200 years is a feasible goal.” Clients return for this ethos, one that uses design as an exercise in generations-long worldbuilding.
Alesch and Standefer’s oeuvre spans both some of the buzziest interiors and some of the most historic spaces—Le Coucou, the Chicago Athletic Association, and the transformed British Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art among them—all meticulously detailed and begun with hand drawings by Alesch. The couple has built their business to be able to make work that follows a chain of inspirations, from travel to conversations. Five years ago, the designers opened Guild, a SoHo boutique whose products and artworks reveal some of Roman and Williams’s sourcing secrets. The shop also contains Alesch and Standefer’s own restaurant, La Mercerie, which gives them the same experiential power they’ve missed from the movies (they’ve designed everything, down to the staff uniforms). Last year they opened Guild Gallery a few doors down to highlight artist collaborators who experiment with material, line, and form.
Soon the branches of their company will be united under a common roof: a firm headquarters is in the works across the street from RW Guild, where staff will be trained in Roman and Willliams–certified romanticism. “I do think we tend to attract a person who's a little dissatisfied by the design education system,” says Alesch, who describes himself as a “soft architect,” one drawn to elements like drapery and interior detailing, and Standefer as a “hard interior designer,” who loves stonework, timber, and diving into construction methodology. Together, they make spaces that feel spontaneous yet rigorously premeditated—and always luxurious. “A lot of our staff are people who got criticized for being focused on beauty or emotion in their designs. We’re sort of a safe haven for those people.”
.jpg)
With this team, Roman and Williams is also designing the first ground-up building on Gramercy Park in 75 years; a hotel and spa in the English Cotswolds that foregrounds the Roman ruins on its site; and a San Francisco hotel for the Hearst family, for which Alesch and Standefer were invited to pull architectural artifacts and furniture from the family archive held in a Bronx warehouse since 1945. After launching their second major furniture line a few months ago, they are experimenting with lost wax and glass casting for a new bronze lighting collection. In turn, these projects and technical explorations may inspire new design questions.
According to Standefer, the firm has always strived to answer the question: “How do you look at the past and future with a new point of view?” With history as a scale, their work thus far is just a drop in the bucket. But, what is important, they say, is the legacy they can leave with the design principles they keep. “We want to make an archetype,” Standefer explains, “and you just don’t do that in a year.”
%2520(1).jpg)
Two decades in, the duo have shared with AD PRO the principles that have driven their business so far—and hopefully, will light the way for the next 20.
Ethos Over Style: “Our work is bound by an ethos, not a style. We don’t fit into typical architecture and design tropes or categories and reject the common stereotypes of what it means to be modern today. Instead, our work is undergirded by a core set of beliefs and is an extension of these values, a continuum of longevity meant to live beyond them—like the name of the studio itself, named for our maternal grandfathers.”
Narrative: “We animate spaces by unearthing stories, amplifying history, and exploring symbols. Everything we design, from an object to a building, is underpinned by narrative.”
Nature: “We are naturalists, inspired by the twists and turns of wild imperfection. We love natural materials and their evolution through use.”
Voltage: “We create voltage by combining opposing ideas and elements. We believe that there is richness in the tension of “the mix” that is order and disorder, organization and freedom, rigor and spontaneity, high and low, refinement and rebellion, past and future, unity and variety.”
Rigor and Spontaneity: “Our work is both rigorous and spontaneous. We uphold the sacred geometries of orthogonal architectural layouts, while introducing unexpected, rule-breaking elements that activate them anew.”
Usability and Longevity: “We design things to be well-used and long-lasting, embracing the beauty of time and wear and rejecting the preciousness of the untouchable. We love the tension between refined details and timeworn use. We rebel against disposability.”
-2.jpg)
“Isness”/Experience Over Design: “We create comprehensive spaces where the experience subsumes the design—immersive environments that heighten emotions, in which the hand of design slips away. The best spaces are generous; they put feeling and memory before their own ego.”
Collapsing Time: “We create buildings and spaces that collapse past, present, and future. It is often hard to identify a project’s timestamp. We have a reverence for the history, materials, and techniques of the past and an eye towards the future. Utility, inventiveness, and a willingness to break with tradition spur us forward.”
History and Symbols: “We observe the power of semiotics and see history and its symbols as sources of inspiration.”
Beauty: “We embrace and strive for beauty. Beauty is a generous gift to the visitor.”
Orchestrated Imperfection: “We utilize imperfection to create the sublime. We believe that beauty comes from the unexpected and the parts that are just a little bit off, just as nature is often un-manicured. There is voltage in embracing wildness.”
The Unfinished: “Our designs are always ongoing. They are meant to evolve and change through nature, nurture, and patterns of use.”
Become an AD PRO member today for only $25 $20 to join the Taking Charge of Your Finances workshop with Amy Astley
