To the editor:
I sat through the regular City Council meeting of March 1, 2022, and heard a councilor request to change her vote on a previous resolution relating to the library building expansion design.
The March 3 Bulletin article addresses what the councilor called “rumored censorship” from a Pikes Peak Library District director. Council did not address the issue as it was not on the agenda.
Obviously, approval of the building concept design and rumored censorship are totally unrelated. But it struck me that there also was some confusion over the term “concept design.”
As an architect with 50 years’ experience with public buildings, notably schools throughout Colorado and hospitals from New York to Honolulu and locally, I have “no dog in this fight.”
On public buildings, we architects need the approving authority to grant approval at key steps to reach the goal of a completed design and a built project in a timely manner.
So, in the presence of the approving authority, we make a presentation on the design for the public’s input. In a community Manitou’s size, there could be 5,000 ideas.
On Nov. 2, 2021, City Council approved 6 to 1 “a resolution to approve the design for the historical Carnegie Library building expansion.”
Most architects would understand that City Council approved a one-story expansion to the west, pushed back to the south to maintain the north façade as the dominant architectural feature, the new Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant elevator and stairs to the south, along with ADA access from Pawnee Avenue.
To quote one public comment:
“Marcy Morrison … stated that she appreciated the insight from previous public comments tonight, but they will never get to the point of having a perfect design and the whole community agreement. The city has not had a functioning library in almost two years, and it is time to move forward.”
To reconsider council’s vote and possibly reverse that design approval would reset the clock to November 2021 and recalculate the architect’s fee. It also would delay construction at a time of hyperinflation.
I would add, after seeing the architect’s presentation on Feb. 22, 2022, for the first time, I found the design clever, given the setting, public input and ADA requirements.
Charles L.T. Smith