The sculptor Bruno Billio first saw room 209 of the Gladstone Hotel in 2004, when it was still recovering from its flophouse days. Huge plastic liquor bottles lined one wall, with pipes connecting them to the taps in the downstairs bar. The itinerant Billio had just returned from two years in London and was unsure about resettling in Canada. He agreed to transform the 316-square-foot space as part of the Gladstone’s first Come Up to My Room exhibition, for which artists create installations in 12 of the hotel’s rooms. Billio, tall and narrow as a river reed, was entranced by the 1889 edifice’s grand ceilings and intricate trim. He wrapped the room’s walls in miles of brilliant pink and yellow thread, then lobbied to stay around as resident artist.

To refurbish the apartment for full-time living, he plotted out a four-by-nine-foot kitchen, updated the bathroom and added doors to create a living room, bedroom and dressing room. Life in this microscopic bijou necessitates regular purging—not a problem, since Billio thrives on metamorphosis. “You get depressed living among things you don’t want anymore,” he says.

The minuscule quarters don’t keep him from entertaining. Monday nights often see friends gathered on the queen-size bed to watch TV and eat hamburgers from silver trays; Wednesdays mean sit-down dinners for eight; and there are occasional dance parties for 12 (furniture moves to the corridor for these). Adrienne Clarkson, attending an event at the hotel during her stint as GG, once knocked on his door, curious about the people disappearing inside. She and her husband, John Ralston Saul, stayed for the evening.