10 Years, 10 Parties
It’s our birthday! This February, Shift Development turned 10 years old and we’ve got lots to celebrate—a great community of friends and collaborators and some fantastic projects where we can live, work and share ideas. For our big birthday, we wanted to share our Top 10. It’s not a list of achievements, milestones, or memories. It’s parties—the moments where our community came together, experienced creativity and collaboration at work, and had some fun.
Were you there? Tag Yourself & Win a Birthday Present!
Visit us on Facebook or Instagram and see our post about our 10 parties. If you were at one of the parties, tag yourself and/or the friend you came with!
We’ll put your name in a draw for a prize including a Hardpressed t-shirt and gift cards from Collective Coffee and the Odd Couple!
1. THE CHERCH One of the first initiatives of Shift Development was to renovate an old church in Riversdale for artist studios. Of course, the reno was celebrated with a huge arts mash-up that became the impetus and model for LUGO, an annual winter party held at the Mendel Art Gallery and now the Remai Modern.
2. THE TWO TWENTY LAUNCH PARTY Recognized as one of the top three parties of the year by the Star Phoenix, The Two Twenty launch party featured theatre, art, lots of libations by AKA Gallery, and a specially commissioned dance piece that evolved on the lobby stairs. It was happenin.’
3. PARK(ING) DAY For three years, Shift helped spearhead a local celebration of the global Park(ing) Day movement with installations, activities in a parking-lot-turned-playground, temporary bike lanes, pop-ups, and speakers. It was an opportunity to creatively champion changes in our community and animate ideas.
4. MOSAIC COMMUNITY BBQ Our residential developments have always focused on how spaces and places can facilitate the growth of community. So when our Mosaic buyers got together to throw a smashing BBQ in their shared courtyard, we knew it was working! It was the start of many great friendships.
5. BIKE TO WORK DAY We love riding our bikes—and so do many of the people working in The Two Twenty or living at one of our residential developments. So we celebrate Bike to Work Day every year. Collective brings out some coffee. Alpha Dog cooks up some waffles (amazing!!) and we have a little sidewalk party to celebrate life on 2 wheels before the work day even begins!
6. RIVERSDALE LOVE In 2015, we invited 12 speakers from totally different backgrounds, experiences, and cultures to share their vision for the future of Riversdale. We packed the Roxy Theatre and heard very diverse opinions and ideas—even the crowd chimed in by posting sticky notes with their visions up on a canvas. Under the leadership of artist Jeff Nachtigall, the canvas revealed a pixelated picture of Star Trek’s Spock by the end of the event.
7. SHIFT OFFICE LAUNCH Shift Development wins the prize for occupying the most spaces in The Two Twenty, as we move from office to office to accommodate our changing team. So it felt like a right of passage when we moved into our beautiful, permanent space on the second floor. At the same time, The Two Twenty turned 5 years older! So we launched the new space and gathered The Two Twenty-ers for beer by 9 Mile, Ice Cream from the newly minted Fable Ice Cream, and turned up the music.
8. FRIDAY BEERS Are you starting to get the picture? We like to celebrate—for reasons big and small. Friday beers happens at the end of every month in The Two Twenty and it deserves mention on the list because life is better when we take a moment and hang with friends at the end of the week. We invite our friends from around Riversdale to join us and break out the 9 Mile!
9. PARKING PATIO LAUNCH In 2017, the City of Saskatoon allowed parking stalls to be converted into mini parklets for the summer season. We couldn’t resist participating. To launch our parklet, Odd Couple brought out egg waffles covered in berries and chocolate and Collective brewed the coffee. Designed by our friends at Oxbow Architecture, the parklet hosted many beautiful summer hangs in front of The Two Twenty.
10. ELEMENT URBAN VILLAGE LAUNCH In 2018, we completed Element Urban Village, a unique residential development overlooking the river on the edge of Victoria Park. We celebrated with a courtyard party that brought together the best of Riversdale: Fable Ice Cream, Odd Couple, Anthology flowers, and 9 Mile. We fired up the community BBQ and Smoker while DJ Mike Gaff kept things lively. The project still has 2 units left, and an awesome community of renters and owners enjoying life on the river.
We’re proud to announce that this project was just presented with the award for BEST TOWNHOME (under 50 units) at the Saskatoon & Region Housing Excellence Awards!