ELIZABETH ROBERTS ARCHITECTS

The first book by the New York–based AD100 architect Elizabeth Roberts compiles photographs, sketches, and even vignettes of fiction, to showcase her award-winning work

Over the past decades, Elizabeth Roberts Architects has built a practice of specificity. Whether breathing new life into a historic townhouse or imparting a sense of place into a ground-up contemporary home, Roberts dissolves the boundaries between architecture, interior design, and objects. Her sensitive approach and timeless aesthetic have earned her firm not only wide acclaim and AD100 status, but also a devoted following.

The 18 projects featured in this book―among them chic city townhouses and brownstones, contemporary mountain retreats, and a restored country farmhouse, as well as commercial and cultural commissions, and ERA’s designs for wallpaper and furniture―reflect Roberts’s dedication to reframing the distinctions between history and modernity. Varied in their typologies, all are remarkable for being refined but warm, composed but informal, contemporary but enduring, qualities that have earned Roberts a clientele that includes Hollywood luminaries, celebrated fashion designers, and media moguls.

Interspersed throughout the projects are hand-drawn sketches; historical ephemera such as postcards, archival photos, and antique maps related to each site; and short fictional vignettes written by renowned novelist Christine Coulson, which add dimension, context, and surprise. 

Elizabeth Roberts, AIA, began her solo practice in 1998, after completing her graduate studies in Historic Preservation at Columbia University and her undergraduate studies in architecture at U.C. Berkeley. A native of Northern California, she established her New York City-based firm, Elizabeth Roberts Architects, in 2016 and now oversees a practice that includes new building, restoration, and renovation projects, as well as furniture and product design.

Christine Coulson worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 25 years and left as a senior writer in 2019. That same year, her debut novel about the museum, Metropolitan Stories, became a national bestseller. Coulson’s acclaimed book, One Woman Show, a groundbreaking novel written almost entirely in museum wall labels, was published in 2023.

Alanna Stang is a writer, editor, and content consultant. In 2019, she cofounded Well Said, a Brooklyn-based, woman-owned narrative strategy firm. She is coauthor of The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture (Princeton Arch. Press, 2005) and Time for Dinner: Strategies, Inspiration, and Recipes for Family Meals Every Night of the Week (Chronicle Books, 2010).

Wendy Goodman is the designer editor of New York magazine and the author of May I Come In? (Abrams, 2018).