In 1928 Rosse—a Dutch-born architect, decorator, theatrical designer, and teacher working in New York City—became the founding president of the short-lived but important American Designers' Gallery. Members included the best-known architects and designers of the day: Donald Deskey, Wolfgang Hoffmann, Raymond M. Hood, Ely Jacques Kahn, Ilonka Karasz, Henry Varnum Poor, Ruth Reeves, Winold Reiss, Joseph Urban, and Ralph T. Walker. The organization was the first in the country to promote American modernist design, but it disbanded in 1930 after mounting only two well-received exhibitions.

The inaugural exhibition featured fifteen room settings and alcoves. Rosse contributed this dining room made entirely of metal, with the walls and ceiling enameled a rich dark blue and the floor patterned in matching blue and cream linoleum. The curved walls opened to reveal gleaming metal cabinets displaying vases and tureens of Monel metal, an alloy of nickel and copper. The furniture was chrome plated and the chairs were upholstered in blue corduroy. In 1930 Rosse installed the dining room in his own house in New City, New York, where it remained intact until his family donated it, complete with its original furnishings, to the Metropolitan Museum.