Boise human rights group raised money for education center. Then building costs soared
In 2019, the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights was told it would take $3.2 million to build an education center next to the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial. The center launched a fundraising campaign and managed to hit that goal last year.
With city permit approvals nearly complete, Wassmuth leaders recently decided to get an updated cost estimate. They were stunned by just how much construction prices had risen.
That same building, they were told, would now cost $6.7 million.
After downsizing the project to $5.5 million, the nonprofit is trying to raise the last 33% of funding it needs to meet that number.
“We have been within a couple of percentage (points) of hitting our target twice,” Dan Prinzing, executive director of the Wassmuth Center, said in a phone interview. “But then all of a sudden we see the construction bid, and it’s gone up again. It’s just a moving target with supply chain and price inflation.”
Oil, supply chain, tariffs
Prices of building materials have gone up 83% since March 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Projects across the Treasure Valley have been affected.
Bill Rauer, executive director of the Idaho Building Contractors Association, said he’s seen people respond in a variety of ways, from abandoning projects to ponying up the extra money.
Rauer attributes the high costs to a lack of supply. The issue, he said, is too complicated to pin on one thing, with worker shortages, trucking shortages, delays caused by the pandemic, oil prices and lumber tariffs all playing roles.
At the same time, a development boom has increased demand. “So while we’re seeing a lot of development here, we’re way behind the demand curve locally and across the country,” Rauer said.
To get the cost down to $5.5 million, the Wassmuth Center trimmed down certain elements. The planned stone facade that was to match the Anne Frank memorial went out the window. So did glass doors, a curved glass wall and about 25 square feet of jutting portals.
Moving forward
The Wassmuth Center still anticipates moving forward with the education center. Prinzing said he has seen a “phenomenal level of support,” with more than 700 donors giving $4.3 million to the project so far.
“I think that speaks to the nature of, not only the perceived excitement for, but also the perceived need for the structure and what it will actually enable within the community,” Prinzing said.
Despite the price hike, Prinzing believes it’s worth it for a city that has seen a recent string of anti-Semitic acts. The center will educate and advocate for human rights and dignity, according to its website.
“The work is more important now than it’s ever been before,” Prinzing said. “...120,000 people come to the memorial each year, and that just extends the learning as they step into the building.”
There are new plans to add a permanent exhibit that would allow visitors to feel as if they’re asking questions to Holocaust survivors through Dimensions in Testimony developed by the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation. Video images of survivors would appear to answer, using footage drawn from lengthy interviews about their experience.
“We are losing Holocaust survivors,” Prinzing said. “We are not losing Holocaust deniers”
Prinzing anticipates finalizing all building permits and breaking ground within the next two months.
This story was originally published April 7, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
