Hospitality Design - July 2014 - 141

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at auction house Sotheby's, and eventually
finding her way to Los Angeles to work in
public relations for the fashion and beauty
industry. She never pictured herself in
hospitality-but that all changed when
Viceroy founder Brad Korzen offered
Rosenfield a position at Viceroy's Anguilla
property in a role he created specifically
for her. Ten days after their initial meeting,
she moved to the Caribbean island for a sixmonth gig that began as an on-site public
relations specialist but morphed into a fiveyears-and-counting director of vibe position.
Korzen's initial guidelines for Rosenfield
were ambiguous, to say the least: "'Make the
music cool. Make the lighting cool. Make
sure there's cool stuff in the boutique,'" she
recalls. Really, Rosenfield's role is to execute
Viceroy's philosophy, creating "a place where
'something for everyone' wasn't a vanilla
interpretation of the resort-going experience
but an all-encompassing energy that makes
the brand unique," she says.
Viceroy's "masculine and handsome"
design aesthetic inspires Rosenfield's
concepts for events, activities, and amenities.
"We want the design to work with what
we're doing," she explains. "We wouldn't
want an event to be super basic; it wouldn't
fit in." For example, Rosenfield merges
Anguilla's beach location with its urbandwelling crowds-at beach parties, she often
sees barefoot women wearing floor-length
gowns that cover up bathing suits. "Designwise, we want it to be fun and colorful.
You're never going to see carnivals and

feathers but beautiful lighting designs
and tablescapes."
But her work at the recently opened
New York property requires a different set
of skills and more experiential activities,
including tours and shopping adventures
around Manhattan or citywide scavenger
hunts. She also worked with the hotel's
designer Roman and Williams to create a
library in each room that tells a different
story about New York. One suite contains
books about Harlem, fashion, and poetry,
while another contains a photographic
history of the city, Catcher in the Rye, and
Becky Cooper's Mapping Manhattan. Her
vision for the hotel is limitless. "How can
you be confined by the greatest city in the
world?" Rosenfield asks, with the hopes of
adding a performance art element to the
Viceroy in the future.
While some people need structure
to survive, Rosenfield thrives in her
unconventional role. "People think my
job is a party girl," she says, but what they

don't see is "me rushing around
making sure [the event space] looks
great." Everything Rosenfield
does-including culinary conclaves,
turndown service, ice-cream socials-
require months-long timelines. And
it's not just the long-term events
Rosenfield is in charge of but also
the day-to-day of building brand
partnerships, meeting with editors,
or finding the right cigars for
Shaquille O'Neal.
Rosenfield's natural curiosity
and life motto to try anything twice
informs Viceroy's buzz-worthy events
planned around the latest in food,
fashion, film, and culture. "The future
is about an all-encompassing brand,
and I pull all that together," she says.
Her pop culture omniscience is why
Viceroy's sum is greater than its parts,
creating "really good synergy," she
says. hd

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