Downtown Docks

Today we draw our attention to a motley assortment of loading docks in and around the southern extremity of Boise's 8th Street Cultural District. This is a gritty pocket of the city's central core that has in recent memory teetered on the edge of the redevelopment ravine. Will this area and the diverse docks who call it home plunge irrevocably into the cookie-cutter chasm of loft housing and brunch spots? Sadly, the shared sensory experiences and spatial interactions of the many are at the mercy of a select few. Until such time as these landed elites cavalierly alter our collective landscape, let us celebrate and find meaning in our existing surroundings:

600 Block, S. 8th Street: An improvised-looking dock graces a corrugated ziggurat of a warehouse. A truly singular specimen.

River Street at 9th: The old Associated Distributing warehouse boasts both a large open dock (left) and a more conventional flush dock (right center). Variety is the spice of life.

500 Block, S. 10th Street: This massive structure was previously fed by railroad tracks, prior to their unceremonious removal from downtown. The creative addition of a platform, dock leveler and bumpers, however, give the former rail car loading door above a new life as a worthy truck-to-warehouse interface.

Downtown Docks

The Loading Area's inaugural post is a melancholy one, as it presents a loading dock that exists no longer in linear time but in the hearts and minds of those who loved it. I'm speaking of the venerable old Compton Transfer & Storage building that stood on Ninth Street south of Front from around 1948 until this past spring. Luckily, I managed to snap a few shots of the warehouse's wide, elegant docking area before the structure was razed to make room for the forthcoming JUMP project. Though not as ostentatious as its successor, the Compton Warehouse was a mainstay of the urban fabric in Downtown Boise's periphery for over six decades. It will be sorely missed, but change is inevitable and even the most robust loading dock's corporeal existence is ephemeral in the grand scheme.