B
building babel
Guest
Most of us are so afeared of the neon ladies we daren't go in.
No condo conversions, additions or rooftop terraces are being contemplated for the 131-year-old Victorian that was designed by George Miller, the architect of Massey Hall, Annesley Hall and many of Parkdale’s old residences.
The city’s oldest continually operating hotel will go on providing hospitality as the bathrooms are renovated, the sound attenuation challenges addressed and the HVAC replaced.
As for the Gladstone’s signature concept of 37 individual artist-designed guest rooms, it will be modernized and reinvented. Mallins said he will be consulting the artists and staff about their ideas on how to reinterpret the original idea realized by the Zeidler family that is selling the property after 17 years of building its reputation as an arts hub.
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The new owners, who take possession at the end of this month, expect it will take about a year to refresh the guest rooms. They will move on to the structural and mechanical issues early next year.
I don't think that's a cupola exactly. Isn't more of a spire? Can someone help us here?
I think it would likely end up tacky if they try to restore the old roof — and anyway, the version of the Gladstone that has resonated with the Toronto that exists now is the flat-roofed building. Dressing it up, trying to harken back to some gilded past age would end up feeling alienating to the community and would be quite a potent symbol of the empty opulence of the affordability crisis in this city.