North Junior High was built on the Lemps Triangle in 1925. Lemps Triangle was bought for $22,500. The Triangle was originally an old baseball field that the local neighbor kids would use during the summer. North was finished in 1937 for approximately $308,351, and during the first year it opened the school had a little over 1300 kids attending.
North Junior High school was the first designated junior high in Boise. Construction, under the management of J.O. Jordan and Son, used local Boise sandstone in combination with over a million bricks manufactured around the region.
As part of the Boise Independent School District’s implementation of a 94 million dollar bond measure, the school was scheduled for a new gym. The original scope of the project was to place a new building in the existing playfield. To reduce the impact on the playfield and better integrate the project with the existing National Register-listed building, CTA Architects – the design team – proposed an alternative solution to the district’s needs with an addition to the existing gymnasium and a remodel of its basement.
An addition of 44 feet to the end of the existing gym was constructed with an excavation of the basement to provide additional space while maintaining the historic building’s proportions and materials. Extensive research was conducted to find a new brick that would be compatible with the existing structure. This attention to detail and historical and architectural compatibility is a testament to the design which implemented within a timeline and budget that the district had mandated for the original standalone gymnasium.
Preservation Idaho is proud to award the project and CTA Architects a 2010 Orchid Award for Contribution to Historic Preservation.