If you can imagine a giggling, slobbering, off-key soprano rendition of Prince’s “Raspberry Beret,” sung to a packed room of flush-faced karaoke jammers at midnight on a Friday, then you know a little of what to expect at Toronto’s historic Gladstone Hotel.

Couple that with sprawling art exhibits, installation, high-concept philanthropy, indie band gigs, theatrical experiments, book and magazine launches—just about anything that extracts the creative juices, no matter how refined. The only thing that the Gladstone seemed to be missing is a suitably ornate place to crash after taking in all the action… until now.

This month, Toronto’s oldest continuously operating hotel will unveil a throwback-to-grandeur facelift and reopen its 51 guest rooms, ending some four decades of slow decline. The elaborate restoration—the brainchild of owners and local design visionaries the Zeidler family, with a nod to famed urban theorist Jane Jacobs’ suggestion that "Old ideas can sometimes use old buildings; new ideas must use old buildings"—aims to preserve and laud the gothic edifice’s history at every turn.

The hotel’s retro fixtures include original wood, huge arched windows, preserved wainscoting, plenty of exposed burnt-orange brick and lots of antique trimmings. The most impressive relic is a hand-operated Victorian elevator (rumoured to be the last of its kind in Canada), leading visitors up three floors’ worth of swank accommodation under 10-foot, 12-foot and 14-foot ceilings.

But the real jewels are of modern origin. Fifteen of the guest rooms have been lavishly designed by local artists in an effort to aesthetically defy the “cookie cutter” approach to tourist lodging. These conceptual rooms present a range of fantasies (from whimsical unicorns to a stash of Canadiana) and a wide array of material overload—an oasis of felt in one room, furniture and accessories inspired by motorcycle and bike culture in another, a 12.5-foot puzzle of a fictitious cityscape in another.

One of the makeover’s primary aims is to attract visitors of all walks into the heart of Toronto’s bulging art and design district. There are over a dozen galleries within five blocks of the hotel, and a bevy of cafés, pubs and restaurants to rest your dogs between gawking—including a suitably bohemian trio right on site: the Art Bar, Melody Bar and Ballroom.

Rooms start at $185 per night.