Boise Development Thread - Part II

[Sawtooth]

Originally Posted by OhGoodGlavin

Great pics Sawtooth! When I moved here in 2009 the mood in town was so gloomy that it would have been unfathomable that so many construction projects would be happening simultaneously at any point in the near future.

Thanks OhGoodGlavin.

I've been sharing my photos here for years and this is definitely the busiest it has been with construction downtown.

[Sawtooth]

Crane Spotting

It is busy downtown today, a typical Saturday in Boise. BTW, 17th Street at State is closed For The Love of Craft party which has local craft beers, Idaho wine and cider and food trucks.


One crane is coming down


and another smaller crane has gone up



I had to wait a few minutes to get this shot without any traffic on Capitol Boulevard. Don't let this few seconds of empty street fool you, it was crazy in this area because the YMCA Famous Idaho Potato Marathon was taking place. and the Community Progressive at Julia Davis Park.



The One Nineteen










Simplot World Headquarters













West Elm façade progress update. It looks nice but I still wish they had exposed the historic brick façade instead.

[Cottonwood]

http://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/boi...nt?oid=3798428

Boise City Department of Arts and History Seeks Input on Draft of Cultural Master Plan

[DonDay]

Just posted:





Lots of little tweaks to designs made - same overall basic plan http://pdsonline.cityofboise.org/pds...00079&type=doc

[Architecture Buff]

Nothing much changed in the design. I think the office building should be at least 10 floors, and the parking garage should have continuous opaque vertical panels to screen the cars. Maybe some retail continuing along Myrtle on first level.
Put the office building atop of the parking garage...yeah 9 floors.
Another idea would have the parking garage surrounded by office buildings to hide it from the streets. Their 8th&Main tower did a great job to hide the cars. LocalConstruct presented a idea of the parking garage hidden from Main and Fairview in their west Boise presentation. TVurban showing the old idea with the hotel across from Simplot HQ is sort of the idea also.
Were is the 5 star luxury hotel?
Enlarged perspectives:





10 story with retail and hidden parking garage (Gardner's cut rendering of 8th&Main):-)


Gardner Company perspectives: http://pdsonline.cityofboise.org/pds...00079&type=doc
It is on June 8th Design Review meeting:
http://boisecityid.iqm2.com/Citizens...?View=Calendar

[TVurban]

Still looks like a cheap suburban office building but unless some new corporate headquarters moves there, I don't think we are going to get anything better.
It's almost if the building is too flat and needs more detail/better materials. The overall concept isn't bad but needs more excitement.
I like how the garage turned out, I just wish it wasn't on the corner or that prominent on the property...

[TVurban]

They should look back at one of their original designs... Although it wasn't great, but least it looks like they put some effort into the building design. If you look at the hotel on the left, it had an interesting facade and striking design. (Is that a tunnel/walkway under the building?)

[boisenative]

I'm disappointed, but I can't say that I didn't see it coming. I like the overall look of the building, but like Architecture Buff said, it needs to be much taller. 10 stores would be nice. Also, it looks like hardly anything was changed from when they first got a lot of grief for it. The biggest difference is that now it is a fancy rendering instead of just drawn. I'm not expecting a miracle (like our friends down south with their CCH), but we can do MUCH better.

[Sawtooth]

Originally Posted by TVurban

Still looks like a cheap suburban office building but unless some new corporate headquarters moves there, I don't think we are going to get anything better.
It's almost if the building is too flat and needs more detail/better materials. The overall concept isn't bad but needs more excitement.
I like how the garage turned out, I just wish it wasn't on the corner or that prominent on the property...

Let Meridian have it.

Nevertheless it will be interesting watching this complex built while hanging at Woodland Empire drinking good brew.

[Boiseguy]

it doesn't look THAT bad, but the future grass part better have a significant tower on it when they do decide to use it

[boisecynic]

You guys must have me on ignore or something. I've explained Parcel B development constraints before. It looks suburban because of the P2 parking overlay which is suburban, more or less. Don't blame the developer, blame city hall. Bieter is no Kempthorne.

A 10 story building would require a huge amount of parking. Probably an economically infeasible amount. I could do the math, number of required spots is based on square footage of building, but I'm guessing no one cares about the actual nitty gritty details of planning and zoning regulations. I'm not sure why Gardner doesn't request a rezone.

So again, there is a big difference between P1 and P2 parking zoning law.

Here's the 2006 parking overlay map again: (if I'm not mistaken, the only thing that's changed: Fairview/Main now have P2)



Pages 128 and 210-226 here: http://cityclerk.cityofboise.org/med.../11-entire.pdf

[TVurban]

Originally Posted by boisecynic

You guys must have me on ignore or something. I've explained Parcel B development constraints before. It looks suburban because of the P2 parking overlay which is suburban, more or less. Don't blame the developer, blame city hall. Bieter is no Kempthorne.

A 10 story building would require a huge amount of parking. Probably an economically infeasible amount. I could do the math, number of required spots is based on square footage of building, but I'm guessing no one cares about the actual nitty gritty details of planning and zoning regulations. I'm not sure why Gardner doesn't request a rezone.

So again, there is a big difference between P1 and P2 parking zoning law.

Here's the 2006 parking overlay map again: (if I'm not mistaken, the only thing that's changed: Fairview/Main now have P2)



Pages 128 and 210-226 here: http://cityclerk.cityofboise.org/med.../11-entire.pdf

I agree that the P-2 overlay is affecting the projects design but parking isn't the only factor in making it look suburban. They're using cheaper materials and have oriented it away from the road. There's also very little detail that makes urban buildings so rich to look at. The overall design is basic. Personally, I don't care if it's 10 or 5 stories, I would just like to see a quality building for it's location.

On a side note, I think more of Downtown should be under the P-1 overlay. This will allow for more quality urban developments that don't have to worry about the extra issues that parking brings with to project.

[IdaBoi]

Originally Posted by Sawtooth

Classic.

Sawtooth's photos are being mentioned in local Facebook groups I follow.

[TVurban]

Anyone seen the grove plaza lately? I've attached a link to a video on the Idaho Statesman page. All the trees are gone and they've started to remove the bricks.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/latest...e79544527.html

[Cottonwood]

Originally Posted by Boiseguy

it doesn't look THAT bad, but the future grass part better have a significant tower on it when they do decide to use it

Agreed. I look at it this way...this development will be far more attractive then the dirt lot there now which has been an unattractive parking lot for years if not decades. There are other lots in downtown for signature towers. One of them is the lot between 10th and 11th at Front which is perfect for a tower.

I think entering downtown via the Connector that the Simplot and JUMP complex will be a satisfying massive backdrop to this new development with its shorter buildings.
At least it adds more density to that area of downtown sandwiched in between Front and Myrtle.

[boisecynic]

Originally Posted by TVurban

...

On a side note, I think more of Downtown should be under the P-1 overlay. This will allow for more quality urban developments that don't have to worry about the extra issues that parking brings with to project.

I've talked to Klegg about this and she said, can't remember exact words, but she said they can't/won't increase density until there's more/better mass transit. It's a catch-22. And that's why they're really pushing a streetcar. Except how does that help? Push parking lots to the downtown fringe? I'm guessing there's too many complaints about the parking situation as it is.

[TVurban]

Originally Posted by boisecynic

I've talked to Klegg about this and she said, can't remember exact words, but she said they can't/won't increase density until there's more/better mass transit. It's a catch-22. And that's why they're really pushing a streetcar. Except how does that help? Push parking lots to the downtown fringe? I'm guessing there's too many complaints about the parking situation as it is.

That's disappointing. It's really is a chicken vs the egg argument. I'd rather they push through the density now and create the argument for mass transit. Having the higher parking requirement constrains and scares away potential developers.
The streetcar will be nice, once it connects to a larger system...

[Boise]

In this post BoiseBro wonders if Paylocity could be the tenant for the building on parcel B:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1081

In this post by DonDay the "Future Signage" just happens to be in Paylocity's colors:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1243

Coincidence?

[OhGoodGlavin]

Originally Posted by Boise

In this post BoiseBro wonders if Paylocity could be the tenant for the building on parcel B:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1081

In this post by DonDay the "Future Signage" just happens to be in Paylocity's colors:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1243

Coincidence?

Yeah, that's kind of the hunch I previously expressed on this forum, as well. Which is why I've held off on criticizing that development too much. As much as I don't like the look of it for the location, a redeeming quality would be a marquee tenant - like Paylocity.

[TVurban]

Article in Idaho Business Review about Local Constructs plans for the 6-acre piece of land they swapped in the West End of Downtown.
Anybody have access to the full article and wants to share some of the details?

http://idahobusinessreview.com/2016/...00-apartments/