Founded in 2002 by Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch, Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors is a comprehensive design firm based in New York City.

Roman and Williams strives to create projects which consistently find the tension between spontaneity and rigor, refinement and rebellion, and past and future. The firm was founded in 2002 by Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer as a vehicle to pursue these dichotomies and reflect their diverse aesthetic interests. After a decade of designing sets for well-known Hollywood movies, the pair began designing residences for notable personalities, with homes for Ben Stiller, Kate Hudson, Gwyneth Paltrow, and others. By 2007 they had expanded into commercial projects, starting with the controversial renovation of the Royalton Hotel in New York City.  In 2009, Roman and Williams completed the award-winning and iconic Ace Hotel New York, boasting The Breslin and The John Dory Oyster Bar with renowned chef April Bloomfield. Simultaneously, the remarkable Standard Highline for Andre Balazs, which changed the face of the Meatpacking District, opened with the celebrated Boom Boom Room crowning the nineteen story building. 2010 marked the opening of Roman and Williams’ first ground-up project, the apartment building at 211 Elizabeth Street in Manhattan. The firm has also designed two of New York’s most well-known restaurants, The Dutch and Lafayette. In 2012, the Freehand hotel and youth hostel, designed and branded by Roman and Williams, opened in Miami, accompanied by the acclaimed Broken Shaker cocktail bar. Other notable projects include a restaurant with Alain Ducasse and a thirty story Viceroy Hotel on 57th Street in New York City, a Roman and Williams’ designed ground-up building with sweeping views of Central Park. The Viceroy features striking restaurant Kingside and the 29th floor bar, The Roof.  The firm has also explored working environments, initially with their own offices in New York City, and expanding to the news room and set for Huffington Post Live, and a social and communal food hall for Facebook at their headquarters. Roman and Williams highlighted the firm’s first ten years of work in their monograph “Things We Made”, published by Rizzoli in October 2012, followed by the release of a Japanese Edition of the book in May 2014. Roman and Williams has designed a successful product line, R.W. Atlas, with Waterworks, including Plumbing and Tiles released in September 2012 and an extended line of Fixtures and Hardware released in September 2014. Additionally, Roman and Williams will launch a line of chandeliers with Lalique in 2016. Highly anticipated projects include the conversion of the historic Chicago Athletic Association on Michigan Avenue into a boutique hotel, continuing the firm’s successful collaboration with the Ace Hotel brand with two planned new locations, and the redesign of the backstage dressing rooms at the Tonight Show. Roman and Williams’ collection of work has also been honored and recognized with numerous awards throughout the years, most notably as the winners of the 2010 Palladio Award for 211 Elizabeth Street, winners of the Lawrence Israel Prize in 2013, as part of the Architectural Digest Top 100 in 2013 and 2014, and as recipients of the Smithsonian’s 2014 National Design Award for excellence in Interior Design.