HOTEL

Location: West Queen West, Toronto, Canada

The Gladstone Hotel is both a cultural and an historic landmark, so when I was invited to redesign one of her iconic suites, I jumped at the chance. Each room at the Gladstone is an art project not just a design assignment, so it was essential to come up with an individual point of view. I chose matches. I have a huge personal collection of matchbooks and boxes gathered over my many years of travel. To me, they’re like little maps to places once explored or yet to be discovered and they’re often picked up or left behind in hotel rooms. They can be clues to a traveller’s tastes, interests and movements. Because The Gladstone is at the heart of Toronto’s west end queer culture, I mined Canada’s LGBTQI archives for inspiration. I found hundreds of actual matchbook covers (some with phone numbers scribbled inside!); reminders of secret meeting places in Toronto’s underground queer past.

These artifacts were rendered, then enlarged, printed in brilliant colours and hung up, in bright white frames. The walls were gallery-white with added surface moulding, and the room also had a small kitchenette and a reimagined bathroom in fresh stone and locally designed and made fixtures. This was my first hotel room project. The challenges it presented were numerous but they were all thrilling — even the limited budget! I have spent so much time in hotel rooms and this was my chance to apply what I had learned from my personal as well as my professional experience. 

The result is both joyful and restful in a pleasing, well-organized way. It’s my homage to a cherished gathering place, my beloved queer community and, of course, my amazing home town. But don’t take my word for it; check in and check it out!

Project Creative Community: Tommy Smythe, Kelsey Eurig