Boise Junior College Administration Building
Boise State University campus, Boise, IDThe Boise Junior College Administration Building is of exceptional architectural significance, not only as a building of unusual institutional importance to the state of Idaho but as one of the two very large-scale federally assisted projects with which Tourtellotte and Hummel closed out the Depression years. Both projects were carried out jointly with Boise's other major architectural firm, Wayland and Fennell; the Boise Junior College building is the only example included in the Thematic Group from among a number of such joint projects in the last several years of the firm's activity as Tourtellotte and Hummel. A comparison between the design for the Boise Junior College Administration Building, for which Tourtellotte and Hummel took primary design responsibility, and the Ada County Courthouse (National Register 1976, Boise Capitol Area Historic District), in which Wayland and Fennell took the lead, points up very clearly the conservative tendencies of the first firm and places it in a somewhat wide context.
In contrast to the tall, monochromatic, modernistic courthouse, the administration building for Boise Junior College is strongly evocative of the Tudor revival style. of the firm's University of Idaho administration building of 1907: long dimensions around a central tower, contrasting materials, flattened arches, medievalizing ornament.
This contrast suggests once more that modern approaches to exterior design were picturesque options rather than ideological imperatives to these architects. This was probably true for most architects of the period; Wayland and Fennell too designed many "Unprogressive" buildings in the 1930s. But the contrast revealed here suggests a particular bias toward revivalism on the part of Tourtellotte and Hummel. That apparent bias cannot be explained wholly in terms of appropriateness to particular projects.
The Boise Junior College Administration Building has substantial significance on a state level as the principal early building of an Idaho state institution of higher learning--and eventually its third university. During 1940-1941 the college conducted a great building campaign. The $180,000 administration building was completed in 1940 by contractor J. 0. Jordan.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.