Watch five years of JUMP construction come to life in one minute

On Sept. 26, 2012, I began documenting the construction of an unusual building in Downtown Boise. Exactly five years later, I recorded the final frame in a sequence that shows the emergence of Jack’s Urban Meeting Place — JUMP.

At the start, I was working on a similar time-lapse project as the Zions Bank building, Idaho’s tallest, took shape Downtown.

Because of JUMP’s unique architecture, construction took much longer than the fast-paced Zions building. My goal was to take a photograph every day during the noon hour, if possible, from the same spot atop the 8th Street garage overlooking the site. There were days during snowstorms when I wondered if I would be able to see anything at all. And for a time, I had to trudge through hip-deep snow that had been plowed onto my perch.

At times, the construction slowed to a crawl. During one such period, while recuperating from a broken ankle, I missed about three months. When I resumed, I was surprised and relieved to see only minimal changes from one frame to the next.

In the end, a sequence of approximately 4,000 photographs have been compiled into a video shows the construction over five years, and then coming to life as the sun sets during a transition into night.

JUMP was among a few large-scale commercial developments in Downtown Boise to be built during the economic downturn. Since then, the Boise skyline has transformed and Downtown commercial development now thrives with new hotels, housing and business space.

This story was originally published October 27, 2017 at 11:31 AM with the headline "Watch five years of JUMP construction come to life in one minute."