BRITISH GALLERIES AT THE MET

In 2014, Roman and Williams was selected to reimagine the Metropolitan Museum of Art's
permanent British Galleries—an 11,000-square-foot, $22 million project that opened for
the museum's 150th anniversary. The curatorial vision, led by Sarah Lawrence and Wolf
Burchard, shifted focus from royal patronage to the creativity, entrepreneurship, and
consumer culture that shaped four centuries of British decorative arts.

The studio undertook complete architectural and exhibition design, creating a new
environment from the macro scale to the micro detail—all cases, platforms, labels, and
custom bronze furnishings. The design employs a narrative of arches through the eras,
framing pocket galleries and creating a domestic, immersive experience.

Key Interventions:

• A New Narrative Entry: A reconfigured entrance from the Medieval Hall leads into a darkened, circa-1600 merchant's room, establishing chronological flow.
• The Cassiobury Stair: This masterpiece of Baroque woodcarving, off-limits since 1932, was made climbable for the first time. A custom bronze mezzanine provides a new vantage point, balancing its status as prized object with its original domestic function.
• The Teapot Wall: 100 teapots from storage massed in semicircular cases by shape and ornament, telling a story of industrial competition and middle-class taste against an ombré blue seascape.
• Period Rooms Recontextualized: Historic interiors staged with simulated seasonal light, showing the rooms as they were intended to be experienced.
• A Chronology of Color: A custom palette of historically significant colors—from natural pigments to early synthetic dyes—unifies the galleries, accentuated by bronze detailing.

The design creates a stage for the objects, emphasizing how craftsmen and manufacturers
adapted to new technologies and markets.