An interview with Christina Zeidler, artist and development manager of the Gladstone Hotel.

By Ryan McLaren

If you go to the Gladtone Hotel right now, there's a faint smell of sawdust and fresh paint. On a recent weekday afternoon there were a handful of people hanging out in the melody bar, contractors rushing around asking questions of each other, and OCAD students setting up exhibits. Christina Zeidler, daughter of renowned Toronto architect Eberhard Zeidler and sister of Margaret Zeilder (who transformed 401 Richmond into the art complex it is today) sits in a makeshift office in one of the rooms on the second floor. She's been answering a lot of questions about building materials, timelines, and what, exactly, is going on.

Zeidler acquired the Gladstone two years ago, and what originally seemed like a fixer-upper project turned into a full-blown restoration.

'œWhen we came to the Gladstone, it was on its last legs,'? she says. 'œThe building itself was falling apart and it was really just fodder for the wrecking ball. It was minutes before it was going to be turned into condo development or just be pulled down because not a lot of people would take this on. It's a pretty challenging project.'?

But Zeidler stresses that the Gladstone itself isn't trying to keep up with the Joneses. This isn't a makeover; it's a restoration. It's still going to be Gladstone, she insists, with the karaoke and the regulars as well as the zine fairs and the indie rock shows. 'œIt's not '˜it was one thing and now it's another','? she says. 'œWe're developing and growing all the time.'?

The main floor will house the ballroom, the melody bar, and the art bar. The second floor will be comprised of multi-purpose rooms which can be used as exhibit space or work space or living space, rentable for flexible time periods, by day, week, or month. The top two floors will be hotel rooms. Zeidler is even thinking about opening a few spaces in the basement. The goal is to restore the building and give the public and the community the opportunity to use the spaces without the restriction of dedicated uses. Every room has unlimited purpose, and Zeidler foresees the community who uses the spaces being the ones to define them.

'œWe want to restore the bones of the building so that people still come and bring their ideas to it,'? she says. Likewise, she sees these spaces as being public, meaning that there is no set '˜market' or '˜demographic' that the Gladstone is trying to appeal to or trying to attract.

'œWe're not looking for any particular patron; we're looking for people who get the whole thing. It doesn't matter what kind of class bracket you're in, you either get the place or you don't.'?

'œYou will meet the most amazing people in all the pockets of society, and if you don't open yourself up to that then you've lost what it's all about.'?

By keeping that emphasis on openness and public space, she hopes to 'œthrow a brick in the door of indie culture,'? she says, 'œwhich is difficult to access if you don't know about it, even though it's all around. It can be kind of intimidating.'?

'œI want this place to be the kind of place where you can wander in and not know anything about it and then find out about it.'? If people who aren't exposed to independent culture can dip their toe in and learn more about the people and organizations that use the Gladstone--like, say, Canzine or Shameless or Blocks Recording Club--hopefully they'll immerse themselves more and more, reinforcing the community and extending it to a larger audience.

She stresses openness and hopes for cross-pollination. While there are numerous scenes in Toronto--from the performance art scene, to the indie-rock scene, to the queer scene, to the lit scene--there are places where they overlap, physically, philosophically, socially, etc. Zeidler hopes that the Gladstone can make those connections more obvious by bringing them all together. She's going to focus on what she knows, the arts, and invite that community in to make the Gladstone their meeting ground.

DJ Zara once said to her, '˜If the revolution is going to really happen, it has to be a party.' 'œAnd if the revolution had a clubhouse,'? she adds, laughing, 'œit's gotta be the Gladstone.'? And it will smell like sawdust and paint.