Roman and Williams

Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors is a New York City-based American design firm, founded by Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch in 2002. The firm has been called “one of the most sought-after design outfits” by W magazine^[1] and was recently included in FastCompany's Co.Design list of the 50 most influential designers in the United States.^[2] Italian publishing company Rizzoli published a book on Roman and Williams, entitled 'Things We Made', released on October 15, 2012, with a foreword by Ben Stiller and essays by Jamie Brisick.

The firm undertakes building design, interior design, branding, as well as the design of custom furniture, lighting, and plumbing fittings and fixtures.

Background

Growing up in New York City, Robin Standefer (born 1965) studied painting, color theory and drawing at the Art Students League and continued her studies in fine arts at the Academia in Florence. During this time, she apprenticed with Robert Mapplethorpe and James Rosenquist.^[3] Robin attended Hampshire and Smith Colleges^[1] where she studied painting and art history, but left to study art history at the City University of New York (CUNY) with Linda Nochlin. After completing her studies, Robin curated several shows for galleries in New York’s SoHo and continued to paint. In 1993, she was hired by film director Martin Scorsese to work as the visual consultant for several of his films^[1] which led to a 15-year career in film design.

Stephen Alesch (born 1966) is a designer, draftsman, photographer, painter, illustrator, etcher, and printer. Alesch attended Northern Arizona University^[4] from 1983 through 1985 and studied engineering and philosophy while there. He left the university system for an architectural apprenticeship and worked for architecture firms Bahram Nashat, Quentin Dart Parker and Venice Atelier, all in Los Angeles, from 1985 until 1994.

Robin and Stephen met in the 1990s while working in Hollywood as production designers and art directors.^[3] Together, they designed more than 20 Hollywood films, including Zoolander,^[5] The Age of Innocence, and The Pallbearer.^[6] Actor Ben Stiller hired the pair to design his family’s Los Angeles home after working with them on the sets of his film Duplex,^[6] which led to the founding of their firm, Roman and Williams.^[7]

The firm’s first office was located on the lot of Paramount Pictures, before they came back to New York in 2002 and established their offices on Lafayette Street.^[8] The firm has also designed residences for Kate Hudson,^[9] Elisabeth Shue^[3][4] and Davis Guggenheim, and the Manhattan apartment of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin,.^[10]

Robin and Stephen are married and live in New York City; they also spend time in their residence in Montauk, NY.^[11]

Building Design and Interiors

Among the firm’s completed projects are: the renovation of the Royalton Hotel,^[3][12] the interiors of the Standard Hotel (including The Standard Grill and the 18th Floor Club, also known as the Boom Boom Room),^[13] for hotelier Andre Balazs, and the Ace Hotel (formerly Hotel Breslin),^[14][15][16] for hotelier Alex Calderwood – including The Breslin and John Dory^[17][18] restaurants, created by celebrated chef April Bloomfield and restaurateur Ken Friedman,^[19][20] and Stumptown Coffee Shop.

Standefer and Alesch‘s own homes, in Manhattan and Montauk, are, perhaps, the purest expression of the couple’s interests and 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.” Residential projects, which Roman and Williams undertakes with the same sense of totality and holism as it does all of its projects, remain a priority and have been heralded across the board. From the project design to the interiors to the decoration, Roman and Williams has designed major residential projects on extraordinary sites around the world, many for A-list Hollywood celebrities such as Ben Stiller, Kate Hudson, and Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as other pedigree projects, such as the renovation and expansion of one of Frank Lloyd Wright's most significant Usonian Houses. The firm also completed its first ground-up residential building at 211 Elizabeth Street, in NoLiTa, renowned for its use of traditional, hand-laid brick^[21] (it is one of the tallest hand-laid-brick building built in New York in decades).

In 2011, Roman and Williams’ wildly successful design of Andrew Carmellini’s new SoHo restaurant, The Dutch, joined The Breslin and the Standard Grill as a staple location on the New York food scene. Lafayette, the firm’s newest restaurant project with chef Andrew Carmellini, opened in April 2013 and has earned rave reviews for its spin on French brasserie fare and atmosphere. The firm’s other recently completed projects include the mess hall on the new Facebook campus in Menlo Park, California, and the HuffPost Live studio set and offices in New York, which debuted Spring 2012.

Roman and Williams has also launched a product-design division and is designing several product and furniture lines, which range from the highly refined to the more accessible and reflect all aspects of the Roman and Williams’ psyche. Such work includes the R.W. Atlas line for Waterworks, released September 2012, which has been praised as luxurious and timeless and was featured in Architectural Digest. Roman and Williams + MatterMade, a line of custom light fixtures, accent tables, and a reader chair designed in collaboration with New York deign gallery Matter, premiered at ICFF in May 2013. The line was praised by the New York Times for having “laserlike attention to details.”^[22] Forthcoming products include a collaboration with the Ace Hotel and a partnership with world renowned luxury French company Lalique.

Recently opened projects include the several recently completed residential projects in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Connecticut, as well as the Freehand Miami, an instant hot spot in Miami Beach, FL. The Viceroy Hotel New York, a handsome black tower rising thirty stories above Central Park,opened in October 2013, boasting a Roman and Williams-designed exterior and interior, as well as custom designed lighting and furniture by the firm in the guest rooms. Pinch, a new restaurant with Chef Alain Ducasse, also opened in October 2013. Set to open in 2014 is a major hotel development project in San Antonio, Texas, housed in one of the country’s oldest breweries. Also currently on the boards is the restoration of an iconic 1949 building in Miami Beach, Florida, set to open as a six-star hotel, for which Roman and Williams has joined forces with an internationally renowned team. Roman and Williams is also hard at work on the conversion of the Chicago Athletic Association into a hotel on historic Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, Illinois. Roman and Williams is also expanding beyond the United States, with upcoming global work planned from India to Argentina.

Finally, in celebration of their tenth year, the firm recently released its first book, “Things We Made”, with Rizzoli, in October 2012. The monograph is an inside glimpse into the Roman and Williams world which features a collection of work over the past decade, as well as their previous work in film. Ben Stiller raves, “They understand viscerally how to make a space that you want to both inhabit and imbibe at the same time.” Readers immersing themselves in the monograph are treated to a full tour of the Roman and Williams’ world, where extraordinary things are created and ethos takes precedence over style.

Project List

Residential Projects

Fourth Street Loft – 2,500 sq. ft. – New York, NY (2000)
Castilian Residence – 10,000 sq. ft. – Los Angeles, California (2002)
Pali Nani Residence – 3,000 sq. ft. – Hawaii (2002/Renovation, Late 2009)
Los Angeles, CA Residence – 3,500 sq. ft. – Los Angeles, California (2004)
New Moon Residence – 6,000 sq. ft. – Los Angeles, California (2005)
Central Park West Duplex – 4,500 sq. ft. – Central Park West, New York (Winter 2008)
Usonian House – 2,879 sq. ft. – Pleasantville, NY (2008)
Montauk House – 2,000 sq. ft., ¾ Acres – Montauk, NY (2008)
Tribeca Penthouse – 4,440 sq. ft. – New York, NY (Winter 2008)
School Road – 10,000 sq. ft. – Wilton, CT (Winter 2012)
Westchester Mansion – 10,500 sq. ft. – Chappaqua, NY (Winter 2012)
W. 12th Street Condo – 1,5000 sq. ft. – New York, NY(Summer 2013)
Park Slope Brownstone – 4,000 sq. ft. – Brooklyn, NY (Fall 2013)

Commercial Projects

Roman and Williams Offices – 4,000 sq. ft. – New York, NY (2004)
157 Chambers Street Condominium – 108,000 sq. ft. – Tribeca, New York (2007)
40 Mercer Street – 100,000 sq. ft. – New York, NY (2008)
211 Elizabeth Street – 33,000 sq. ft. – New York, NY (Spring 2009)
The Aldyn – 480,000 sq. ft. – New York, NY (2010)
Facebook Campus Design (Partial) – 30,000 sq. ft. – Palo Alto, CA (2011)
Huffington Post Streaming Network Set Design – NY/LA (2012)

Hospitality Projects

The Royalton Hotel – 21,200 sq. ft. – New York, NY (Fall 2007)
The Standard Hotel – 210,000 sq. ft. – New York, NY (Summer 2009)
The Ace Hotel NY – 179,000 sq. ft. – New York, NY (Spring 2009)
Freehand Miami – 50,000 sq. ft. – Miami FL (Winter 2012)
Highline Hotel – 20,000 sq. ft. – New York, NY (Summer 2013)
Viceroy New York – 132,500 sq. ft. – New York, NY (Fall 2013)
Pearl Brewery Project – 92,000 sq. ft. – San Antonio, TX (est. Spring 2014)
Miami Hotel Project – 224,000 sq. ft. – Miami, FL (est. 2015)

Retail Projects

Stumptown Coffee – 522 sq. ft. – The Ace Hotel (2009)
Cole Haan – 1,500 sq. ft. – New York, NY (Summer 2010)
Kava Café – 500 sq. ft. – New York, NY (Spring 2011)

Restaurant Projects

Forty Four – 1,795 sq. ft. – The Royalton Hotel, NY (2007)
The Breslin – 2,870 sq. ft. – The Ace Hotel, NY (2009)
The Standard Grill – 4,545 sq. ft. – The Standard Hotel, NY (2009)
The Boom Boom Room – 3,943 sq. ft. – The Standard Hotel, NY (2009)
Lyon – 1,200 sq. ft – New York, NY (Fall 2010)
The John Dory – 3,000 sq. ft – The Ace Hotel, NY (Fall 2010)
The Dutch – 3,500 sq. ft. – New York, NY (Spring 2011)
Lafayette – 7,000 sq. ft. – New York, NY (Spring 2013)
Kingside – 3,150 sq. ft. - Viceroy New York, NY (Fall 2013)
Pinch – 8,400 sq ft. - Yonkers, NY (Fall 2013)
15th Street Restaurant Project – 13,400 sq. ft. – New York, NY (est. Winter 2013)

Product

Waterworks – “RW Atlas” Line of Fixtures, Bath Furniture and Tiles (Launched Fall 2012)
Rizzoli International - “Things We Made” Monograph (Published Fall 2012)
Matter – “Roman and Williams+MatterMade” Line of Furniture and Lighting (Launched Spring 2013)

Awards

• Fast Company’s FastCo Design’s 50 Most Influential Designers (2011)^[2]
• The Wallpaper* 150 (2011)^[23]
• Architectural Digest’s ‘AD100’ (2011)^[24]
• Palladio Award (2010)^[25]
• The New York Times ‘Nifty Fifty’ (2009)^[26]
• Interior Design’s ‘Best of Year-Boutique Hotel’ (2009)

Works in Film

Robin Standefer Film Credits

Stephen Alesch Film Credits

References

External links

• Roman and Williams Official Website
• Roman and Williams at the Internet Movie Database
• Roman and Williams at the Internet Movie Database