I went to the meeting, and two of the members were very disappointed about the design. One said it looked like they just threw the buildings on the parcel so to speak.
The whole thing is not pedestrian friendly, as the entrance of the office building is on the parking lot. It sounds like they are trying to save money, as they are building the same office building in Utah. They blamed ACHD for their design, because of all the traffic coming in from the connector. You look at Simplot HQ and their main entrance is on Front, not the interior side. So their excuse doesn't hold water.
It all comes down to money, and what their client wants. They need to put the parking garage off the edge into the middle and build around it to hide the ugly thing. LocalConstruct has design that with their west end parcel.
IMO they should build a office tower at 13th and Myrtle a condo tower at 13th and Front, and a convention hotel across from Simplot all on top of a 2-4 level parking garage with retail on all four sides at street level. On top of the garage would be a green space for all three buildings tenants to enjoy. That way there would be people 24 7 on the site with shops cafes etc., and it would not be a dead zone at night as planned.
Here are two mixed use projects from MG2 Architects /Seattle. The parking garage is incorporated so it blends into the whole project instead of being a separate building. The retail along the street are separated from the busy boulevards with wide sidewalks and landscaping. And as I mentioned above the top of the project has a large landscape area with two high rise towers.
http://mg2.com/
This design has the buildings open so pedestrians can mingle, and want to explore the whole area.
Convention hotel idea from same firm:
http://mg2.com/work/hyatt-regency-la...ington/#images
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I probably have my camera with me too often and I live in the Northend and Downtown is part of the neighborhood. 
a popular Boise pastime on the day of rest. 
after all of these years lol.
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