A rendering of the condo building they designed on New Yorks Elizabeth Street.
Neither Standefer nor Alesch (who share a NoHo loft and a home in Montauk) has formal training in design. After studying painting at Smith and Hampshire colleges, Standefer worked the front desk at the Leo Castelli gallery. On a whim she art directed a friend’s small film, and soon after, Martin Scorsese hired her to source paintings for New York Stories; she then worked in the art department for Goodfellas and The Age of Innocence. Alesch, a Wisconsin native, dropped out of architecture school after a year and spent a decade working in architecture offices before transitioning to film.
The couple’s rise to design stardom involved some serendipity, with one celeb client leading to another leading to a slew of larger commissions, but, says Standefer, “We’ve also worked our asses off.” And they won’t stop anytime soon: They are currently toiling away on a Washington, D.C., hotel; restaurants for the Standard and the Ace; and the renovation of a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Jokes Alesch, “And on weekends we’re building a tunnel through solid rock—with our bare hands.”
