freckles & ash

Designer Profile: Roman and Williams

Ace Hotel Lobby

Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors is a firm in New York City that has been creating exceptional spaces since 1999. They have created a firm that that embodies the traditions of old architectural firms, which encompasses the entire design process and explores all parts of design. They still do hand rendered sketches of their projects, and create custom details by coordinating with local artisans, and sourcing unique elements to add to their interiors.

Rendering of an Ace Hotel Room

Bed Detail at the Ace Hotel

Private Residence in Montauk, NY

When beginning a project, the principle designers imagine what the desired end result should be, and how the user of the space should experience it. They have pulled away from theory based design practice which is popular in many cutting edge firms these days. Roman and Williams have taken their contemporary viewpoint, and applyed it to traditional methods and crafts to create their unique style and the result are truly authentic interiors, that are completely unique.

The Royalton Hotel

Dining Room at the Royalton Hotel

I first saw an image of this dining room above years ago, and always loved the rope details, but it is much more interesting to learn about the process behind interiors such as this, and that is the best part about doing these profiles. I also really admire firms such as Roman and Williams who take a particular point of view and achieve great success with it. In the smaller design world, firms try to be malleable, to appeal to a broader client base, but I feel they don't really specialize in anything, and the result is work that ends up being washed out and unoriginal. Expressing your own philosophy and point of view is a really important part of design, and something all the highly successful firms have in common.

18th Floor at the Standard Hotel

The Standard Grill

Their website features picasa slideshows for all their listed projects, which is great when you see their renderings and sketches beside the final project. View everything here.