I do. In fact, the major renovation of the hotel, the one that brought it back to its original 1929 glory, took five years and was only just completed in 2019. The ones she’s talking about now are ongoing, small changes.
“I was speaking with the hotel manager. Seems they need a new building inspector. Something,” she says with a wink, “went wrong with the last one.”
The wink means she paid someone under the table to fire the old inspector and hire us. Usually that idea bothers me, because ethically, who thinks that’s okay? But tonight, I’m intrigued and feeling more than a little greedy myself. I could workhere? At the Dominion?
“I see that gleam in your eyes, darling,” she says, swallowing her champagne and holding up her glass for more. The waiter magically appears, plucks the bottle out of the ice bucket at her elbow, and pours.
By now you might have noticed that when it comes to my boss, I don’t need to speak. Ever. In fact, it’s usually better when I don’t. When I first joined Vale’s, I tried to edge into conversations, but I’ve learned since that I’m mostly there to listen.
“There’s something going on up at the rooftop garden,” she’s saying now, “and a few suites are getting upgrades, among other things. Some of the old ballrooms need a little sprucing, and of course all the electrical will need going over. I’ve asked Jack Samson to email you a list of what they’re doing regarding modern building codes, et cetera.” She beams. “How’s that? And I’ll take care of the Nickel building.”
How can I argue? The only sticking point is that the Nickel building is the contract that I just closed. It should be mine. She knows that perfectly well, but she has plans for Nickel. In her mind, the manager there owes her for last time, when he hired L&L instead of us.
“The hotel is using Shears.”
They’re fine. I’ve dealt with them before. Good construction company. They know what they’re doing.
“Oh, and, darling, I want you to speed up the process.”
Finally, my mouth opens. “In what way?”
“You know.”
Claudia Vale likes to cut corners. Developers sometimes like that, too. Construction companies, not so much, because it usually falls back on them if there are problems. I don’t like it, either, because it’s my signature on the paperwork, my name on the line. I’ve always found a way to do the job properly, despite Claudia’s demands for expediency, but I have a feeling that one of these days I’m going to run into trouble. It’s the law of averages. Right now, she loves me. I’m the golden child because I work fast and clean.
She urges me to drink up and shows me how, tipping her glass almost vertical. Then she rises effortlessly onto the highest-heeled shoes I’ve seen outside of the Oscars.
“Gotta go, darling. You know how it is.” She blows me a kiss as she stridesaway from the table. “Congratulations again, Bridge. I can’t wait to hear how things work out here. Check your email.”
Claudia’s a bit like a tornado. You know she’s coming, but you’re never quite prepared. I’m the storm tracker, following her around, and I am aware that at any time, that storm could spin around and rip me to shreds.
chapterEIGHT
A week later, I’m back at the Dominion, but this time I’m working. No Twist of Fate for me until after five o’clock or so. They are doing quite a bit of work here, but since the hotel is what it is—a world-renowned architectural monument always booked with influential guests—they want me to work invisibly. Royalty, movie stars, politicians, or prosperous bankers shouldn’t be inconvenienced ever, but especially by a building inspector. I respect that.
This morning, Claudia flew to New York for meetings with Nickel, so I am taking my time. She won’t notice, because she doesn’t micromanage my projects. I solve my own problems; I’m known for taking things off her plate. Besides, I want to enjoy my stay here. History never gets old for me.
I try to imagine what the world was like when this grand hotel first came into existence. Sandwiched between the First and Second World Wars was the age of flappers, jazz, the Charleston, and martinis flowing like fountains. Bootleggers and gangsters ran the police ragged. Most Canadian women finally had the vote. Not many had heard of Hitler yet, but Mussolini, Lenin, Stalin, and other authoritarian governments were rising up all over Europe. Radio turned into movies turned into “talkies.” Cars were just catching on,and in 1927, Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic. It was the beginning of the age of skyscrapers, and Toronto went all in.
I’ve wandered through this gorgeous hotel’s gallery many times before, admiring old photographs of its construction, major events, and celebrities. The pictures show behind the scenes of the opening gala, with dozens of champagne glasses being filled, an efficient team of chambermaids in their black-and-white uniforms, and much more. The Dominion was incredible in its time. I’m always amazed to think that this twenty-eight-storey, limestone-covered, steel-framed hotel opened the year of the Crash and survived despite all the odds. It was the tallest building in the city, the country, even the entire British Empire for its first year, until the Canadian Bank of Commerce tower was built just a little higher. These days, 9,200 buildings around the world are taller than the Dominion.
That includes the CN Tower, just down the road. In 1976, the CN Tower pierced the clouds as the tallest building in the entire world, and it held that title forthirty-two years. It still casts an impressive shadow over this city, but the Tower has aged, everything around it has changed, and the competition is still going hard. If I picture downtown Toronto real estate as an expensive garden—which would be ironic, because the feverish market these days has literally wiped out so many of the city’s gardens and parks—then the CN Tower stands like a huge old concrete flower. In comparison, the condominium projects sprouting near its base and all around the city grow like weeds. Those condos, with their slick, pristine lines and unaffordable rents, make up a large percentage of Vale’s Property Inspections clientele. That’s where I normally work.
Of all the architecture in the city, the Dominion is still the most magnificent example, in my opinion. The peak of the hotel is Châteauesque style, with pointed arches on the third storey and a small, peaked roof with dormers on top. Romanesque arches frame huge windows, and stunning Corinthian pilasters crown marble columns. Grotesques perch on the walls like in past ages, defending the building with their gargoyle snarls. And inside, way back in 1929, the designer made sure that most of the 1,048 guest roomsoffered a view of either downtown Toronto or Lake Ontario. To someone like me, this building is perfect.
The Dominion, like my cherished Library Bar, is a shining example of Art Deco architecture and design. Had Gatsby ever visited Toronto, this is where he would have stayed. I’m fairly sure F. Scott Fitzgerald never did, but I do like to picture him here. I envision him meandering through the lobby well into the night, his jacket slung casually over his shoulder, saxophones and sultry voices filling the place with jazz. Zelda is with him, naturally, overly friendly with strangers after too much champagne, and her focus drifts. She takes off her shoes; they dangle from her fingertips by their thin straps. She flips her mink stole over one shoulder while the sleeve of her silk dress slips lazily off the other. She spins barefoot on the marble floors, the young queen of the socialites, never believing she might grow old. I can almost hear her giddiness echoing off the high ceilings and glittering chandeliers, dancing amid the wail of the trumpets and the pounding drums.
I think I was born in the wrong century. When I’m in this bar, I enjoy the opulence, but what charms me even more than the distinctive drinks are the reflections of history in the walls. These days, the world moves so fast. We can google an answer in a split second. We can zip to the other end of the city in an Uber or pull our phone out and call anyone around the world, if we want. Despite these conveniences, I’ve always thought that history is much more interesting. The 1920s and ’30s most of all. Back then, the hotel’s fancy elevators were a major innovation, never mind the sixty-foot-long switchboard and the over thirty thousand electric sockets installed throughout. People had to work harder for what they wanted. Achieving goals without the aid of the internet would have, in my opinion, given greater satisfaction. I like imagining the effort it must have taken to do what we now regard as automatic and instantaneous.
So, when Claudia told me she was headed to New York and added the Dominion inspections to my ongoing condo appointments, I didn’t complain.
It’s crazy windy my first morning on-site at the Dominion. When I walkthrough the hotel’s front entrance off Front Street, the flags snap over my head, and I’m glad to shut out the blustery world as the door swings shut behind me. It’s like a sanctuary in here, with its expansive, high-ceilinged entrance, then the dozen or so wide black marble steps. At the top of the stairs, the walls fall away to reveal the massive lobby, contained by sweeping beams and marble columns. Glorious sprays of fresh flowers light up the tables. The wood ceiling, patterned with painted inlays, rises two storeys. It stretches above the second-floor wraparound balcony, where guests can peer down at Clockwork, the dazzling lobby bar, glowing under muted chandeliers. Somehow, this place has the ability to appear both vast and cozy, with its brown leather couches and smaller, more intimate tables, of which only about a quarter are presently occupied. In the background I hear a piano playing, and again I think of Zelda.
Practically speaking, the Dominion is wildly expensive for guests who crave the “gold” experience, not just the history. When it comes to more expensive amenities and fancier rooms, I prefer Toronto’s Ritz-Carlton, if I’m being honest. Even the Shangri-La. But if you get a standard room at the Dominion, you can stay in this extraordinary castle for less than a lot of the inferior hotels in the city.
A tray of coffees in hand, I make my way toward the ballroom, where I’ll meet up with the construction crew.
The Dominion set the bar for luxury hotels around the world in its glory days, and during its recent major renovations, the Dominion returned to those standards. That meant bringing the legacy up to date while maintaining the history. The company they worked with was Accor Design & Technical Services, who have worked with all levels of hotels around the world. They are the best at what they do, and they did an incredible job this time as well. When the iconic hotel reappeared in 2019, shiny and new again, so did its reputation.
