ROMAN WILLIAMS &

The partnership of Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer is at the core of Roman and Williams. This is a love story.

Born in New York, Standefer studied painting in college and at New York’s Art Students League before working for gallerist Leo Castelli. Alesch, meanwhile, was raised in California and completed a traditional ten-year apprenticeship in the offices of several L.A. architects. Alesch and Standefer met in 1992 on a film set. Over the course of a decade, their professional collaboration became a personal relationship.

Roman and Williams springs from their complementary strengths. To this day, Alesch renders all of Roman and Williams’ presentation drawings by hand, providing a visual narrative that expresses the DNA of every project. Standefer then translates that narrative, articulating the vision to make it happen.

Standefer and Alesch have received hundreds of awards for their work, including the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Excellence in Interior Design, the Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation Visionary Award, and the Palladio Award. They split their time between New York, where their practice is headquartered, and Montauk, which serves as a studio and laboratory for their designs and ideas.