Since opening their studio Roman and Williams in 2002, Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch—who formed a sterling reputation for their movie production creations (where they met)—have made a name for themselves and a coveted influential mark on the industry by crafting spaces that combine comfort, style, modernity, and a generous nod to the past. (In fact, their firm is named for their maternal grandfathers.) Designing for film served as what Standefer calls “a Petri dish for our ideas.” Adds Alesch: “Storytelling, narrative, the slow reveal—the film is always that way. [There is] hesitation and suspicion before you give somebody a reward. Creating cinematic spaces is an interesting point of view, and it’s still a part of our dialogue.”
Few have had more dazzling debuts than their reworking of the lobby in Manhattan’s Royalton Hotel, a project that led to collaborations with a who’s who of industry visionaries—including Ian Schrager, André Balazs, Alex Calderwood, and Andrew Carmellini—to create such arresting, game-changing, and award-wining projects as New York mainstays the Standard, High Line, the Ace Hotel (also in New Orleans), and the High Line Hotel; hotel Chicago Athletic Association; and, most recently, RW Guild, their retail-restaurant hybrid in New York that shows off their elegant wares.
Their work transcends boundaries, conceiving high-profile restaurants (Manhattan’s Le Coucou among them), nightclubs, residences, products, and a current prestigious collaboration to create a suite of galleries for the Museum of Modern Art, which Standefer says is a dream project. Their design philosophy is clear and concise: “We believe in spaces and objects that people can truly use and things that genuinely last. We are devoted to rebelling against disposability and the common stereotypes of what it means to be modern today.”
Their satisfaction comes from the satisfaction of others. Says Standefer, “[We love seeing] thousands passing through doors, making memories, and being moved by these experiences.”
The Royalton New York
The Chicago Athletic Association
Retail-restaurant hybrid RW Guild in New York
The Freehand Hotel in New York
Le Coucou restaurant in New York
Greydon House in Nantucket, Massachusetts
