Glen E. Cline (1920-2008)

From Boise's expanding public schools to the engineered timber vault of the Kibbie Dome, Glen E. Cline helped develop the institutional architecture of postwar Idaho. His career followed the growth of a regional architectural practice, the changing ambitions of the state's public institutions, and the civic decisions that remade Boise's built environment.

On June 11, 1975, construction crews placed the final arch of the roof over the University of Idaho's football stadium in Moscow. The structure had taken shape with unusual speed. In twenty-four working days, enormous curved trusses had risen above the playing field, creating a clear span of approximately 400 feet without a single interior column. The completed roof would reach roughly 150 feet above the stadium floor, enclosing a space large enough to accommodate football games, concerts, exhibitions, and university ceremonies through the long northern Idaho winter. Its scale was striking, but the more consequential achievement was structural. Timber products developed by an Idaho manufacturer had been combined with steel to accomplish something normally associated with considerably heavier construction.

Glen E. Cline, the Boise architect responsible for the project, had approached Arthur Troutner and Trus Joist Corporation with a problem that conventional building systems could not readily solve within the university's financial constraints. Troutner's research in engineered wood, together with the manufacturer's expertise and the work of the broader design and construction team, offered a workable answer. The result was the Kibbie Dome, an architectural undertaking whose success depended upon the coordination of an architect, an inventor, a manufacturer, and an institution prepared to undertake an unconventional project. The building would become one of Idaho's most recognizable modern structures, and its construction remains among the clearest demonstrations of Cline's professional approach.

By then, Cline had spent more than twenty-five years working in architecture, much of it in Boise. His projects had followed the state's expanding need for schools, offices, transportation facilities, and public buildings. As the city grew beyond its older residential neighborhoods and commercial center, the architectural practice he helped lead grew with it, moving from relatively modest commissions into increasingly complex institutional work. The Kibbie Dome brought that development into unusually sharp focus. It required technical imagination, difficult financial decisions, and the management of contributions from people whose specialized knowledge was indispensable to the finished building.

Cline's career would eventually encompass more than six hundred projects, according to the obituary published after his death in 2008. The figure includes work in which he participated in different professional capacities, rather than six hundred buildings personally designed and completed under his name. His contribution is better understood through the changing nature of the practice itself. Over four decades, he helped lead a firm that designed buildings for an expanding state, developed relationships with important public and corporate clients, and participated in civic decisions that continue to influence Boise's physical character.

From Kansas to Boise

Glen E. Cline was born on February 8, 1920, in Fredonia, Kansas, to Marion E. and Bernice Griffin Cline. He grew up in Fredonia and attended the local high school before pursuing higher education at Kansas State University, where he studied architecture. During his university years, he worked for the A-D-M Company in Fredonia, first as a chemist and later as a sales manager. These positions introduced him to technical and commercial responsibilities before he entered professional architectural practice. His obituary identifies Kansas State as his alma mater, although the surviving published accounts do not consistently establish his exact degree or graduation date.

The Second World War interrupted his early adulthood. Cline served as a B-24 Liberator pilot in the United States Army Air Forces, a responsibility involving considerable technical training and operational discipline. The available records do not provide enough detail to reconstruct his deployments or combat service, but they establish that aviation formed part of his experience before architecture. On February 2, 1946, he married Kathryn Crain in Wichita, Kansas. Their subsequent family life would be based in Boise, where they raised two children, Christina and Larry.

Cline arrived in Idaho during the first years of the postwar building boom. In 1949, he joined Wayland & Fennell, an established Boise architectural practice whose history extended to the nineteenth century. The office had already produced numerous public, commercial, and residential buildings across the state. Joining it placed Cline within a professional tradition shaped by earlier generations of architects while giving him access to the expanding commissions associated with postwar development.

The timing was consequential. Boise's population and physical boundaries were growing, while the expansion of education, transportation, utilities, and commercial activity created sustained demand for construction. New schools were needed for children in developing neighborhoods; businesses sought modern retail premises and offices; public agencies needed buildings capable of accommodating changing administrative responsibilities. Architects working in this environment had to combine building design with knowledge of financing, construction methods, technical regulation, and the increasingly complicated relationships among clients, contractors, and consultants.

Cline's early career developed within these conditions. He worked for the Boise firm until 1953, when he left to become chief architect for Skaggs Drug Centers in Salt Lake City. The position introduced a different form of architectural practice, one organized around the needs of a growing commercial business. Retail construction demanded attention to recognizable store identities, practical circulation, cost control, and the repeated delivery of facilities in different locations. His later responsibilities in Boise would require similar management skills on projects of considerably greater institutional scale.

In 1955, Cline returned to Boise and established a partnership with Charles V. "Ike" Wayland, forming Wayland & Cline. The move placed him in a leadership position within a practice whose history predated his involvement by more than half a century. It also began the period during which his name would become closely associated with many of Idaho's most prominent public buildings.

An Architectural Practice Across Generations

The firm's origins reached back to 1889, when William S. Campbell established an architectural office in Boise. Campbell's commissions included buildings that reflected the city's emergence as a commercial and governmental center. He was responsible for the Idanha Hotel, which opened in 1901, and worked with Charles W. Wayland on projects including the original Central Fire Station. James A. Fennell subsequently joined the practice, creating Wayland & Fennell in 1904. Their work continued through the early decades of the twentieth century, establishing a substantial regional portfolio before Cline entered the profession.

Charles V. Wayland joined his father's office in 1930 after studying architecture at the University of Washington. Known professionally as Ike, he represented the next generation of the practice. By the time Cline joined in 1949, the firm had survived changes in ownership, economic conditions, and architectural fashion. Its work had evolved alongside Boise, from buildings that reflected nineteenth-century commercial traditions to the more restrained forms and construction methods increasingly associated with twentieth-century institutional architecture.

Cline's partnership with Wayland introduced another period of change. The firm's commissions expanded as schools, banks, and public agencies required new facilities. Returning veterans and growing families had created sustained demand for classrooms and neighborhood infrastructure, while Boise's commercial development supported larger and more specialized buildings. The practice responded by broadening its technical capabilities and accepting projects that required coordination among different professional disciplines.

Neil Smull joined as a partner in 1961, creating Wayland, Cline & Smull. Smull had studied at Kansas State University, where he had known Cline, and had undertaken teaching appointments at Kansas State, Michigan State University, and the University of Idaho. His work included educational facilities and bank buildings, with particular attention to energy-conscious design. The partnership added another experienced architectural voice to a practice already becoming more organizationally complex.

Subsequent changes brought Robert Hamill and Bradford Paine Shaw into the firm. In 1968, Cline Smull Architects merged with Hamill Shaw Associates, forming Cline Smull Hamill Shaw & Associates. Shaw departed in 1972, while later leadership included Allen Quintieri and Gerald Armstrong. The firm's name changed with these partnerships, eventually becoming CSHQA. By the time Cline retired in 1985, the business had developed into a multidisciplinary organization capable of handling major architectural, engineering, planning, and institutional commissions.

The sequence of partnerships is important because the firm's buildings were rarely the work of a single person. Large projects required design architects, project managers, engineers, landscape architects, specialists, and contractors, often working over several years. Contemporary architectural journals preserve distinctions among these contributors that can disappear in retrospective accounts. Cline's name in the firm's title did not necessarily identify him as the designer of every commission it accepted. His significance lay in a combination of direct architectural responsibility, professional leadership, and the development of an organization capable of undertaking increasingly demanding work.

Schools for an Expanding City

Some of Cline's earliest significant projects were educational buildings, commissioned during a period of rapid growth in Boise's public school system. The Boise School District's historical account documents an extensive construction program that began in the late 1940s and continued through the 1950s. New elementary schools appeared in developing neighborhoods, existing facilities were enlarged, and additional secondary schools were constructed to accommodate rising enrollment.

Borah High School, completed in 1958, belonged to this period of expansion. The new school helped reorganize the district's secondary education system, permitting tenth-grade students to return to the high schools. Cline's obituary identifies him as a principal architect associated with the project, along with Hillcrest and Mountain View elementary schools, which were also completed in 1958. The surviving published evidence establishes his involvement more securely than it documents the particular design decisions made for each building.

These commissions are important for understanding the direction of his practice. School architecture required careful organization of classrooms, corridors, administrative areas, outdoor spaces, and specialized facilities. Construction costs had to be managed within public budgets, while buildings needed to serve growing communities and accommodate changing educational programs. The work demanded a practical understanding of how institutional requirements translated into floor plans, structures, and construction schedules.

Cline's architectural career consequently developed through projects that addressed the ordinary needs of a changing city. The expansion of Boise's schools created lasting public infrastructure while giving architectural firms experience in coordinating multiple building types and technical requirements. Those skills would later become central to the larger university, governmental, and corporate commissions associated with Cline's mature career.

Offices, Apartments, and a Growing Downtown

The growth of Wayland, Cline & Smull coincided with changes in Boise's commercial architecture. Larger office buildings, new financial institutions, and mixed-use developments introduced forms and construction methods substantially different from the city's earlier commercial blocks. These projects reflected rising demand for administrative space and the increasing role of national and regional corporations in Idaho's economy.

The Bank of Idaho headquarters, designed in 1963, is one example. Wayland, Cline & Smull served as associate architects on the twelve-story building, which later became known as the Key Financial Center. The firm's precise relationship to the principal designer is important, since an associate architect's responsibilities may differ considerably from those of the architect responsible for the building's original concept. The commission nevertheless demonstrates the firm's involvement in Boise's developing high-rise commercial environment.

Imperial Plaza, completed in 1965, provides a more substantial example of the firm's architectural work. The thirteen-story mixed-use tower combined ground-floor professional offices with apartments above. Its exterior employed marble-chip mosaic panels and balconies, giving the building a distinctive surface treatment and allowing its residential floors to address the city through repeated outdoor spaces. One-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments occupied the upper levels, while the project also included larger penthouse residences.

R. E. Rice Construction served as general contractor, and Boise artist Quinten Gregory produced a rendering of the building. These details, preserved in CSHQA's historical records, illuminate the relationship between design, construction, and architectural presentation. The project entered a downtown environment still dominated by older commercial buildings, introducing a comparatively tall residential structure at a time when Boise's urban form was becoming increasingly vertical.

Imperial Plaza also demonstrates the variety of uses being incorporated into modern downtown buildings. By placing offices and residences within the same structure, the project accommodated different patterns of occupation on a concentrated site. Its balconies and extensive exterior treatment distinguish it from the more austere governmental and corporate buildings that appeared in subsequent years. The commission belongs to a transitional moment in Boise's architectural development, when established local firms were adapting to demands associated with larger and more complex urban projects.

The Morrison-Knudsen Headquarters

Morrison-Knudsen occupied a distinctive position in Boise's economic history. Founded in 1912 by Harry W. Morrison and Morris H. Knudsen, the company developed from a small contracting business into an internationally significant engineering and construction enterprise. Its projects included dams, transportation infrastructure, and large industrial works. By the late 1960s, its expanding operations required administrative facilities capable of accommodating personnel previously distributed among several locations.

In 1968, the company began planning a new headquarters complex. An announcement published in Architecture/West in February 1969 described a five-story reinforced-concrete building on an eight-acre site, with a full basement and provisions for future vertical expansion. The design included an elevated plaza, a four-story interior court, and exterior columns faced with gray brick. The publication credited Wayland, Cline & Smull, reflecting the firm's involvement during the design period, although the partnership had subsequently expanded.

The building's construction demanded a response to the site's proximity to the Boise River. Engineering accounts published shortly after completion explain that the fluctuating groundwater table complicated the inclusion of a full basement. The design addressed this problem by raising the first floor above the surrounding terrain, creating a podium that accommodated the basement and supported a landscaped plaza. The solution gave a technical necessity an architectural consequence, establishing the building's relationship to the ground and creating an elevated setting for the headquarters.

Inside, the four-story court supplied a large central volume around which the company's administrative operations could be organized. Sculptor Walter Graham contributed a substantial copper globe representing Morrison-Knudsen's international activities. The commissioned artwork reinforced the building's institutional purpose, presenting a corporate identity based upon engineering work conducted across the world. The combination of concrete structure, elevated plaza, and monumental interior expressed the scale and ambitions of a company whose origins remained firmly associated with Boise.

The new headquarters was dedicated in June 1970. Its completion also marked a shift in the geography of Morrison-Knudsen's Boise operations. Earlier offices, shops, and warehouses had occupied property near Broadway Avenue, where the company had maintained a substantial industrial presence. The relocation consolidated administrative functions within a new complex and reflected changes in the organization of the business. The old industrial property subsequently underwent a different sequence of ownership and redevelopment.

The commission offered Cline's practice an opportunity to work at the intersection of architectural planning, specialized engineering, and corporate administration. The headquarters had to accommodate a complicated institutional organization while responding to the physical limitations of its site. Its significance lies partly in that coordination, as well as in the building's contribution to Boise's emerging landscape of modern office complexes.

The Kibbie Dome

The project that would become the Kibbie Dome began with the destruction of the University of Idaho's Neale Stadium in 1969. The wooden facility had served the university for decades but had been condemned before a fire destroyed it that November. The university needed replacement athletic accommodation and considered several alternatives, including a larger outdoor stadium and a separate indoor arena. Financial limitations eventually led to a phased solution, with an outdoor stadium constructed first and an enclosure planned for a later stage.

The replacement stadium opened in 1971, with grandstands, a press box, and an open playing field. Artificial turf followed in 1972. The university subsequently pursued a roof capable of transforming the facility into an all-weather venue. Moscow's climate made the project particularly attractive, since snow, cold temperatures, and seasonal conditions could interfere with outdoor events. The challenge was finding a means of covering an exceptionally large playing surface without placing columns where they would obstruct spectators or limit the building's use.

Cline was selected to develop the covered stadium and turned to Arthur Troutner, whose experiments with engineered timber had produced commercially viable structural systems through Boise-based Trus Joist Corporation. Troutner had spent years developing products intended to increase the structural capabilities of wood. His research demonstrated how laminated materials and composite construction could produce members with strength and dimensional characteristics unavailable from ordinary sawn lumber.

The Kibbie Dome employed an unusual combination of engineered timber and steel, producing a curved roof that spanned approximately 400 feet. The structure drew upon Trus Joist's proprietary products and a truss system designed to accommodate the loads imposed by the roof and northern Idaho's winter conditions. The geometry produced a barrel vault rather than a hemispherical dome, a distinction frequently obscured by the building's familiar name.

The construction sequence demonstrated the practical advantages of the selected system. In 1975, crews assembled the major roof trusses in twenty-four working days. On June 11, the final arch was placed, completing the principal structural assembly. Additional work on the roof covering, insulation, lighting, and end walls continued before the enclosed stadium opened that fall. The finished building measured approximately 410 by 498 feet, with its roof reaching roughly 150 feet above the stadium floor.

The project required substantial financial participation from students and alumni. William H. Kibbie, a university alumnus, contributed $300,000 toward the enclosure, while the Associated Students of the University of Idaho provided an important source of support. The finished facility consequently carried both names in its formal designation as the Kibbie-ASUI Activity Center. Its funding history reveals the institutional negotiations behind the building, whose construction depended upon balancing athletic ambitions with the university's available resources.

The first football game under the completed roof took place on September 27, 1975, against Idaho State University. The formal dedication followed during homecoming on October 11. Students and spectators entered a building whose scale had few local precedents, yet its construction had relied upon technical developments originating within Idaho itself. In 1976, the American Society of Civil Engineers recognized the project for its structural achievement.

The building's importance extends beyond its original use as a football stadium. The clear interior allowed the university to accommodate basketball, track events, concerts, ceremonies, exhibitions, and community gatherings. Its roof transformed a seasonal outdoor facility into a large multipurpose enclosure, creating a different relationship between the university and the communities it served. Over subsequent decades, the Kibbie Dome became a setting for events whose needs and audiences differed considerably from those originally associated with intercollegiate football.

Its continued use has required substantial alterations. The university added facilities at the east end in 1982, while repairs to the roof and later improvements addressed changing requirements for safety, accessibility, circulation, and building performance. Renovations during 2009–11 introduced additional changes, including translucent wall panels that altered the exterior's appearance and the quality of daylight inside. These modifications belong to the building's history as a functioning institutional facility.

Cline's role in the Kibbie Dome was significant because he recognized the possibility of combining a demanding architectural program with an emerging structural technology. Troutner and Trus Joist supplied the engineering knowledge and products required to realize that possibility. Their collaboration produced an unusually economical response to an exceptionally difficult span, making the building a valuable case study in the relationship between architectural planning and technical innovation.

Boise City Hall and the Cost of Redevelopment

While the Kibbie Dome was taking shape in Moscow, Boise was undergoing a different kind of architectural transformation. Downtown redevelopment proposals sought to replace older commercial blocks with larger governmental, institutional, and commercial facilities. The movement reflected national ideas about urban renewal, in which aging buildings and irregular property patterns were often understood as obstacles to modern development.

Boise City Hall, opened in 1976, became one of the most consequential products of that period. Designed by Cline, Smull, Hamill & Associates, the building occupies a prominent site on Capitol Boulevard. Its massing and exterior materials differ sharply from the smaller nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century commercial structures that previously occupied the block. The building's substantial forms, deeply articulated exterior, and extensive use of brick place it within the broader architectural language of Brutalism, although its masonry treatment distinguishes it from more familiar examples executed in exposed concrete.

A historic-site survey prepared in 2017 identified the building as an uncommon brick expression of the Brutalist style. The survey also documented the extensive demolition required to create its site. At least thirteen older masonry buildings were removed, including commercial premises, a bottling plant, water company offices, cold-storage facilities, the Bohemian Brewery, and the Labor Temple. The block had also contained Levi's Alley, historically associated with Boise's former red-light district.

The new City Hall supplied contemporary facilities for municipal administration, concentrating governmental functions within a substantial civic building. Its construction also erased a layered portion of downtown history. The displaced structures represented several periods of commercial activity and included buildings associated with labor, manufacturing, public services, and social life. Their disappearance was part of a larger redevelopment process in which the perceived benefits of modern facilities were weighed against the condition and usefulness of older buildings.

The architectural significance of City Hall consequently cannot be separated from the circumstances of its construction. Its design reflects the governmental ambitions of the period, while the site records the consequences of land clearance and consolidation. The building provides evidence of both the architectural culture that produced it and the urban planning priorities that made its construction possible.

The 2017 survey documented the building's architectural integrity and evaluated its potential contribution to historic designation. That assessment should be distinguished from formal listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Historic eligibility identifies potential significance; it does not establish that a property has received official designation.

City Hall illustrates the complicated position of modern buildings within preservation history. Structures constructed during urban renewal can themselves become historically significant, even when their creation involved the destruction of older places. Their preservation requires an understanding of both histories, including the architectural intentions of the original project and the losses embedded in its site.

The Boise State Pavilion

By the late 1970s, Boise State University faced a growing need for a facility capable of accommodating large athletic and public events. Its existing gymnasium, constructed in the 1950s, no longer provided sufficient seating or suitable acoustics for the range of activities the university hoped to host. Proposals for a larger arena produced years of discussion about location, funding, and the responsibilities of students and other supporters.

The Pavilion emerged from those negotiations. University records describe debates over possible sites, proposed increases in student fees, and the extent of public and private financial support. The Bronco Athletic Association made a major funding commitment, while student bonds and fees supplied additional revenue. Groundbreaking took place in February 1980, and the building opened on May 16, 1982, at a reported total cost of $17.5 million.

Cline, Smull, Hamill & Associates served as architects for the project, which was designed as a multipurpose arena capable of accommodating approximately 12,000 spectators. Its organization separated the principal public arena from adjoining intramural facilities, allowing different activities to proceed independently. The arrangement reflected the practical requirements of a university building expected to serve athletic teams, students, public audiences, and visiting performers.

An architectural account published in Northwest Architecture in 1983 preserves unusually detailed information about the design. The arena was organized into three seating levels intended to bring spectators as close to the central floor as practical. Entrance lobbies were positioned at the building's corners, connecting audiences to circulation routes around the seating bowl. Concessions, restrooms, service areas, and support spaces were distributed to accommodate large crowds.

The building employed concrete and steel construction, with roof and wall systems designed to address acoustic and operational needs. Exposed arena walls incorporated perforated metal panels with sound-absorbing materials behind them, while the ceiling used dark acoustical treatment. The design emphasized the ability to adapt lighting and seating arrangements for events of different sizes, making flexibility a central architectural requirement.

The original professional credits identify CSHQA as architect and recognize several specialized consultants. Reaveley Engineers & Associates provided structural engineering, Bridgers & Paxton contributed mechanical engineering, and O'Rouark Engineering handled electrical work. Neil Smull was credited with landscape architecture, while ASC Constructors served as general contractor. The records demonstrate the scale of professional coordination involved and reinforce the importance of distinguishing a firm's collective work from the contributions of individual partners.

The Pavilion opened with public school graduation ceremonies, followed by religious and entertainment events before its first major NCAA basketball tournament in 1983. Over subsequent decades, it became an important setting for university athletics and the wider community. It was later renamed Taco Bell Arena and, in 2019, ExtraMile Arena. Its continued operation reflects the success of the original programmatic ambition to create a venue capable of serving many different kinds of gatherings.

The Pavilion and Kibbie Dome provide a useful comparison. Both addressed the need for large multipurpose spaces, yet their architectural solutions responded to different sites, budgets, institutional programs, and engineering conditions. The Kibbie Dome's defining achievement was its extraordinary roof span, while the Pavilion's design centered upon the coordination of seating, circulation, support facilities, and flexible event use.

Architecture Beyond the Building Site

Cline's professional activities extended into civic planning and regulation. His obituary records service on Boise's Planning and Zoning Commission, Design Review Committee, Board of Adjustment, Building Code Committee, and other organizations concerned with the city's development. He also held leadership positions within the Idaho chapter of the American Institute of Architects and participated in professional bodies addressing architectural practice and construction.

Such appointments placed him within the institutional process through which buildings were approved, standards developed, and public spaces planned. They also brought him into contact with questions beyond the boundaries of individual architectural commissions. Cline was part of a generation of professionals whose work helped determine how Boise would accommodate growth while considering the recreational and environmental value of land within the city.

His involvement in the early Boise River Greenbelt movement is especially noteworthy. During the 1950s, members of the Capital City Kiwanis Club began discussing the possibility of establishing public access and recreational improvements along the river. Cline's obituary identifies him and fellow Kiwanian Earl Reynolds as participants in an early proposal. Later oral-history records provide additional support for their involvement.

In a 1998 interview preserved by the Boise Department of Arts & History, former Mayor Robert Day recalled appointing Cline, Reynolds, and Nancy Donald to the Planning and Zoning Commission. He associated their participation with efforts to advance the Greenbelt. A separate interview with Reynolds identified Cline and Gordon Eichmann among those working on preliminary planning and improvements through the Kiwanis Club and city planning bodies.

The Greenbelt developed through a much larger sequence of public decisions, land acquisitions, and sustained advocacy. Planning consultant Harold E. Atkinson recommended the acquisition of riverfront land in 1963, and Boise formally adopted the Greenbelt as a city goal in 1966. Subsequent development involved public agencies, property owners, community groups, and numerous individuals whose contributions extended across decades.

Cline's role belongs within that collective history. The oral-history records support his participation in planning and advocacy, but do not establish that he originated or personally designed the entire Greenbelt. His involvement nevertheless demonstrates an interest in the relationship between buildings and the larger city, extending his professional concerns into public recreation and land-use planning.

Professional Recognition and Later Years

Cline remained active in architectural practice through the early 1980s, as the firm continued to undertake public, commercial, and institutional projects across Idaho. Its expanding responsibilities reflected both the growth of the state and broader changes in the profession. Large building commissions increasingly required interdisciplinary teams and specialized technical consultants, while architectural firms developed organizational structures suited to managing projects over multiple years.

In 1985, Cline was elected to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows, one of the profession's principal honors. Contemporary reporting in Northwest Architecture confirms his election alongside other architects from the Pacific Northwest. The recognition acknowledged a career associated with substantial architectural production and professional service.

He retired the same year, leaving a practice that had continued evolving through successive partnerships. CSHQA retained the institutional history of the firm he had helped lead while undertaking new projects and adapting to changes in design technology. The company's later work included restoration of Boise's historic Central Fire Station, originally designed by Campbell and Wayland in 1903. The 1985 rehabilitation reconstructed the building's removed bell tower from historical documentation and adapted the structure for office use. The project connected the modern firm's work to the architectural history from which it had developed.

Cline's obituary records a wide range of personal interests and professional affiliations. He and Kathryn traveled extensively, maintained a family cabin near Karney Lakes, and shared interests in outdoor recreation. The couple raised their children in Boise, where Cline's professional relationships and civic participation remained concentrated through much of his adult life. Kathryn died before him.

Glen E. Cline died in Boise on August 14, 2008, at the age of eighty-eight. His career had extended from the first years of the postwar building boom through an era of increasingly complex institutional architecture. The buildings associated with his work continued to serve universities, governments, businesses, and communities, although many had undergone substantial changes since their original construction.

Buildings, Institutions, and the Work of an Architect

The architectural record of Glen Cline's career is unusually broad. It includes the public scale of Boise City Hall, the corporate presence of Morrison-Knudsen's headquarters, the dense residential program of Imperial Plaza, the athletic facilities of two universities, and the schools that accompanied the growth of Boise's neighborhoods. These commissions differed in purpose, materials, construction systems, and institutional circumstances. Their shared history lies partly in the development of the architectural practice that made them possible.

The firm had existed for decades before Cline arrived, and it continued after his retirement. Its work was shaped by architects whose contributions deserve individual recognition, including Ike Wayland, Neil Smull, Bradford Paine Shaw, Robert Hamill, and Allen Quintieri. Engineers, contractors, clients, and public agencies also influenced the buildings' form and realization. The surviving professional records repeatedly demonstrate that authorship in a large architectural practice is distributed across people with different responsibilities.

Cline's work is therefore best understood through the responsibilities he is known to have held and the projects for which the documentary record identifies his leadership. The Kibbie Dome offers the clearest example. The unusual roof was an achievement in structural engineering, but its realization also required an architect capable of recognizing the appropriateness of an emerging technology, organizing the broader project, and coordinating the demands of a university working within a constrained budget.

The buildings also record the aspirations and contradictions of their period. Morrison-Knudsen's headquarters expressed the growth of an Idaho company with international ambitions. Boise City Hall embodied a modern approach to municipal government while occupying land cleared of older buildings. The Pavilion addressed a university's expanding role in public entertainment and athletics, and the Kibbie Dome transformed a stadium into a year-round civic resource. Their architectural histories become more complete when examined alongside the institutions and public decisions that produced them.

Cline's participation in planning and the early Greenbelt movement adds another dimension to the record. The city he helped build was changing through individual construction projects, but also through decisions about land use, public access, and environmental amenities. His professional life intersected with both forms of development.

In the half-century since the Kibbie Dome's completion, its roof has been maintained, repaired, and altered, while the building continues to accommodate new programs and audiences. Boise City Hall has become part of the historical record of urban renewal, and the Pavilion remains an active public venue. These buildings have moved beyond the circumstances of their original commissions, acquiring histories shaped by subsequent owners, occupants, and public institutions.

Cline's architectural contribution is visible in that continued life. His buildings were conceived for particular requirements, yet many were sufficiently adaptable to remain useful as those requirements changed. Their survival also makes the original decisions available for examination: the engineering of a roof, the organization of a corporate headquarters, the planning of an arena, and the difficult choices involved in creating a new civic center. Together, they document the work of an architect whose career was closely connected to Idaho's transformation during the second half of the twentieth century.

References

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