HOMECOMING QUEEN
Everything you see in the new Rosewood Hong Kong has a tale to tell. The entrance of the grand ballroom is framed by intricate leather panels crafted by Atelier Mériguet-carrère, a Parisian design studio that worked on the restoration of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. The walls of guest rooms are wrapped in wool woven by Loro Piana in rural Italy. More than 150 chandeliers, lamps and lanterns were designed for the property by a team in New York. Perhaps the most interesting story, though, is not about luxurious fittings from far-flung corners of the world but about a local family that made its home in Tsim Sha Tsui.
“I grew up on this site,” reveals Sonia Cheng, CEO of the Rosewood Hotel Group, as she looks out over Victoria Harbour from one of the hotel’s suites. “My father and grandfather created the New World Centre here back in the 1980s. There was a shopping mall, a hotel, offices and apartments. We lived in one of the apartments. My father and grandfather were really forward-thinking because Tsim Sha Tsui was not as developed back then but they really turned it into a destination for Hong Kong residents. Lots of Hongkongers have precious memories of the New World Centre. And I share those memories. I remember the arcade in the New World Centre; I remember eating in the coffee shop; I learned to ride a bike along the harbourfront just outside.”
Sonia’s father, Henry Cheng, has similarly fond memories. “New World Centre was the dream of my father, and my dream,” recalls Henry, chairman and executive director of New World Development. “I remember when it opened, the whole area panicked because it was the first time a large-scale shopping mall was completed in Hong Kong and it was the only one in Southeast Asia I think. It was stunning, and we were very successful at building a landmark there, but after 30 years everything is outdated, so we wanted to redo it.”
Henry envisioned turning the site into a world-class art and design district, but he knew it had to be anchored by something special. “We wanted to build something outstanding,” he says. “And after I purchased Rosewood in 2011 I knew I wanted to build a Rosewood in Hong Kong and for it to become the flagship property. We want to promote Rosewood through this flagship to become number one, the best hotel brand in the world.”
Now, eight years after setting that goal, Rosewood Hong Kong is a reality. The hotel occupies 43 floors of an imposing 65-storey tower designed by New York-based architectural firm Kohn Pedersen Fox, which also oversaw the rejuvenation of the whole district, christened by the Chengs as Victoria Dockside. Inside the tower, renowned American interior designer Tony Chi worked his magic. “This is a very meaningful project for me and my family, but we have a very talented team,” says Sonia. “This hotel is a collaborative effort.”
New York-based Tony was a natural choice for the interiors. Sonia and Henry had him design the Rosewood London— which effortlessly blends British heritage, contemporary design and a collection of quirky curios—and he’s currently renovating
The Carlyle, a Rosewood hotel, in New York. But long before they ever collaborated on professional projects, Henry commissioned Tony to oversee a much more personal space: his home. “I’ve probably known Tony for more than 20 years, since he designed the family home,” recalls Sonia. “He’s a dear friend of the family.”
He’s a visionary designer, too. At the beginning of the project Sonia outlined for Tony her vision of the hotel as a “vertical estate,” describing how she saw the property more as a towering urban manor house packed with personality than a series of cookie-cutter hotel rooms. This concept was inspired by the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, an elegant private home that was transformed into the very first Rosewood hotel in 1980. Running with this brief, Tony has filled the Rosewood Hong Kong with pattern, texture and colour, mixing and matching materials to create characterful, comfortable spaces. This is not a hotel decorated in wall-to-wall greige. “We wanted to create a sense of whimsy and wonder,” explains Tony.
To achieve this, Tony searched far and wide for inspiration. “The central sculptural staircase, which has gestural drama and flair, and is in limestone with black Marquina natural stone accents, was inspired by the world’s grand opera houses,” says Tony. “And we collaborated with countless artisans around the hotel, from Italian luxury furniture maker Giorgetti to metal craftsmen Capoferri.”
But the most immediately noticeable design features are those that come from closer to home. When you walk from the lift to your room in the Rosewood Hong Kong, you don’t pass through a featureless corridor but meander along a spacious hallway that Tony describes as a “lounge-like salon.” These communal areas are filled with sinuous sofas and shelves laden with books and knick-knacks, many of which are from—or reference—hong Kong. On one shelf you might see a pair of Chinese guardian lions, on another bone china teapots that hark back to the city’s history as a centre of tea culture.
Although it’s Tony’s style to imbue a space with a touch of local flavour, it’s also in Rosewood’s DNA. “Our core brand philosophy is to create ‘A Sense of Place’,” explains Sonia. “We really try to weave local culture into our hotels so that guests can experience the best of the city without setting foot outside. And that’s just not in the interior design, but in the F&B concepts, the outfits for our staff—it’s in everything.”
Local tastes are clearly reflected in the Rosewood Hong Kong’s restaurants and bars. The hotel has eight dining concepts, including The Legacy House, which serves refined cuisine from Shunde in Guangdong province, and Holt’s Café, a more casual, allday restaurant. “Holt’s Café celebrates local favourites, so there’s Hong Kong milk tea and baked pork chop rice on the menu—comfort food,” says Sonia. “We chose Shunde cuisine for The Legacy House because a lot of people who live in Hong Kong are from Shunde, including my family. Both my grandfather and father were born in Shunde.” The hotel’s moody, masculine bar, which is decked out in dark marble and sumptuous velvets, is called Darkside, a cheeky nod to Hongkongers’ nickname for Kowloon.
The city’s influence on the hotel’s restaurants and bars goes beyond the food. For The Legacy House, Rosewood commissioned local fashion designer Anaïs Jourden Mak, founder of the label Jourden, to design the outfits for the staff. “It’s a Chinese restaurant, so we started with the idea of having a cheongsam and pyjama look,” says Anaïs. “But then we tried to find newness in these traditional silhouettes. We interpreted these Chinese elements in a very modern way.”
Another local talent, Lois Tien of Anagram, created the women’s outfits for the staff of Darkside, The Manor Club executive lounge, The Butterfly Room lobby restaurant and some front-of-house positions. “Anagram is a Hong Kong-based label but we have a very modern outlook in that our aesthetics are very clean, no-frills, everything is super easy to wear,” says Lois.
Rosewood Hong Kong also collaborated with artists from the city, including Chloe Ho, whose abstract ink painting Ocean’s Vase has been printed on key cards, notebooks and other items dotted around guest rooms. “Rosewood were interested in my work because of how I look at the Hong Kong environment and the water and the natural beauty of Hong Kong,” says Chloe. “And then to use it throughout the hotel in different ways really illustrates the overlap between art and design, and how art is part of the Rosewood signature.”
Paintings, drawings and prints catch the eye in all areas of the hotel, but particularly in the suites, each of which features a unique painting by William Lo and new prints by celebrated ink painter Wilson Shieh. Wilson created several new series of works for the hotel, including one called Hong Kong Life, which depicts four individuals dressed in very