Moving Reinvented HQ

Our headquarters here at Reinvented Inc. has been at 84 Fitzroy Street for as long as I can recall: we started renting our two first-floor rooms from silverorange in the fall of 2003, more than eight years ago. Oliver was only three years old. Johnny didn’t even live on PEI yet. And the world was a calmer, gentler place. Here’s what my office looked like on day one:

That’s an almost-new iMac sitting on my desk; it was replaced by one with a larger screen, and then by a MacBook, and finally, most recently, by a MacBook Air. The plant died shortly after I moved in (I never watered it), I replaced the chair with a better one (although I’m still looking to sell the one in the picture; let me know if you’re interested). I’m still using the same desk, but there’s a lot more stuff piled on and around it.

We’ve been happy here: silverorange has been a good landlord, and they of silverorange good friends. We’ve done a lot of good work here, held a lot of meetings, built a lot of technology, had a lot of fun. 

But it’s time for a move.

“A change is as good as a rest,” they say. And so for that, and because silverorange is about to launch an ambituous multi-year interior renovation, and because my tiny letterpress shop is expanding every month, we’re picking up shop and relocating to the 2nd floor of The Guild at the corner of Queen and Richmond.

It’s a space I know well as Oliver’s music teacher Peter Mutch had his studio there for several years, and, of course, I’ve had my letterpress housed in the basement of the building since last fall (it will be nice to have “composing” and “printing” co-located).

The new space is bright — it has a lovely view down Queen Street (which will be nice in place of our lovely view of the back of the Queen Parkade right now) — and is one large room 26’ x 11’ room. If you know the theatre at The Guild, imagine sitting in the audience facing Richmond Street: with x-ray vision you could see our office by looking up and to the left.

So my January will be partially taken up with hurrying about to make arrangements for Internet access, moving our desks and gear (and figuring out what of the piles of things here in the old office I can sell, give away or trash so as to avoid moving them).

The move will also mean something of an “office culture” change for Johnny and me: for 7 years we’ve been ensconced in our own little offices here in the back of Fitzroy Street; we’re now entering into much more of a “co-working team” environment, albeit with a small team of two. Which will, I’m sure, take some getting used to.

And of course all that proximity to the art, music and theatre pulsing through The Guild likely won’t hurt our creative process (I feel good that our monthly rent dollars will be helping to support and arts space).

This new location marks the third time I’ll be working from an office on Richmond Street: when I first moved to the Island in 1993 I worked at the PEI Crafts Council office at 156 Richmond, later, during the Okeedokee years, I had a tiny office at 75 Richmond. So it’s familiar territory.

My morning commute will be cut almost in half from its current, punishing, 600 m in 8 minutes to a much more reasonable 350 m in 4 minutes. Of course I’ll only be getting half the exercise I get now, but perhaps now I’ll be able to go home for lunch, and there’s all that new opportunity for letterpress workouts. And we’ll only be 43 seconds walk from Casa Mia. The mind boggles.

Once the new base of operations is up and running we’ll have a drop-in; watch this space for notice.