Yep, you saw it in today’s Statesman. JUMP is back. Now, it’s not a $100 million deal, but a $70 million one. Instead of circling the grounds, it provides a Disneyesque flank on Myrtle, and a lot of open space. I still don’t get the concept, and I don’t think Simplot does either. A tractor museum, combined with two floors of event space, artists studios, a caterer and an ad-hoc cooking school? And foundation offices but no corporate headquarters?
I so, so, so, want to be wrong, but no one would seriously bring a proposal like this to market. How in the world do these people plan to activate this space?
Well it comes as no surprise that the City of Boise has resoundingly panned the hastily thrown together JUMP project. As the Statesman reports today:
In August, city officials and urban design experts brought in by Boise Mayor Dave Bieter met with Simplot planners to review the project proposal. The gist of that meeting was that the project should change, said Councilman Alan Shealy.
And that . . .
Some of the biggest concerns: that the project didn’t connect well to BoDo or other Downtown developments, and that its design wouldn’t be open enough to pedestrians. “I heard the experts didn’t pull any punches,” (P&Z Member Doug) Cooper said. “It was a fascinating project, but where it could be better is how it sits in the city in an urban way … being active for people on the street, it just doesn’t do very well.”
And of course you might recall what I said way back in May when the project was first proposed:
It remains to be seen what the site planners are thinking. A ringed fortress in the city’s cultural district? There is zero visibility between the buildings in the complex, that is a negative. The one good thing about that could be sound mitigation from traffic. We’ll see though what design review and the Council have to say.
Good for the powers that be for saying NO to bad design. There’s been a lot of that in this city through the urban renewal years, some by the Simplots already (Grove Hotel). A $100 million project in the heart of the city is something that has to be done right.
My good friends over at Rizen Creative have the whole JUMPDATE over on their blog, but I couldn’t help comment on one of things that struck Jeff and Ron. They were encouraged by Project Manager Maggie Sodderberg who “said the project team was looking for input from the community in the form of a “Board of Dreamers.”"
More pipe dreams are exactly what the JUMP project doesn’t need.
In the last meeting I attended, the JUMP spokesperson could not state how this non-profit venture was going to stay afloat financially, and very clearly did not understand the development process. Several people asked about access to JUMP, and what the plan was to improve it. The response was the same each time: “I am sure that is getting worked out at the City.” No, Mr. Cuoio, access doesn’t just “get worked out at the City.” If the Simplot Foundation wants some sort of traffic calming devices, crosswalks, lighting, or whatever, it needs to ASK FOR THEM FROM THE APPROPRIATE AGENCY. And that would be ACHD.
I hope to Pete that things are shaping up with the project and that some new light was shed at the meeting at City Hall, but so far, I am afraid. Very afraid.
Development, Economic Development, Simplot | admin July 14, 2010 | 
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