Space
Shapes Spirit
We rebuild meaning by rebuilding place.
Boise Rising is a civic project working to rebuild the physical and cultural foundations of our city.
We start with the built world. The streets, homes, and public squares we inhabit shape how we live and who we become.
When these places lose coherence, community and meaning erode with them.
The Approach
Modern life frays when the built environment drifts out of alignment with human scale and responsibility.
When streets and neighborhoods lose coherence, social trust and civic life erode with them.
We begin with Place, because stability starts in the physical world.
Story and Ritual reinforce what the environment makes possible. Together, they shape a city that supports responsible citizenship and durable meaning.
What We Are
Building
Culture takes form in stories and symbols before it solidifies into stone. Through essays, film, and public narrative, we are establishing the intellectual substrate—the shared values and operating principles—required to do real work.
As this foundation sets, we expand into:
Neighborhood Prototypes
New patterns of block-level organization and resource sharing
The Built Environment
Human-scale spaces that support stability and daily interaction
Civic Formation
Forming the character and responsibility public leadership requires
Systems Coordination
Structures and tools that strengthen trust and collective decision-making
We are translating these ideas into the structural reality of our city.
Recent Essays
Why stagnation invites extraction Part 2 of 3: Building Systems to Hear...
Drive down any major arterial in the Treasure Valley and you will...
Administration and leadership are often mistaken for the same thing, but they...
The Yellow Flag Across the valley, the bright yellow flag with the...
The Contrast Most people know the feeling of a good holiday. The...
Three
Foundations
Place
Designing anchored environments that respect the human nervous system
Story
The narrative of who we are, what we owe the past, and what we carry into the future
Ritual
The shared practices and structures of stewardship that allow civic life to endure
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for Updates
This is the necessary work of re-founding a world. We are looking for the builders, the designers, and the neighbors ready to do it.
A weekly email with our latest essay, plus additional notes and updates from the work behind the scenes.