By year’s end, Pikes Peak Library District’s flagship branch will look different.

Officials hope the $300,000 exterior makeover of Penrose Library at 20 N. Cascade Ave., in downtown Colorado Springs also will lead patrons to feel safer and more welcome.

“If individuals see events occurring in an area that are illegal, inappropriate and distasteful, that makes them feel unsafe. When you clean them up, the feeling does change,” Michael Brantner, chief facilities and securities officer at Pikes Peak Library District told the city of Colorado Springs’ Downtown Review Board 13 months ago.

The board voted 6-1 on Sept. 3, 2024, to approve the library’s plan after rejecting its original renovation proposal in May 2024 and calling for modifications to be made.

“We’re looking at changing the mindset — you feel safe by what you think and interpret,” Brantner said to the board last September. “With the Penrose campus, we want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to create that safe feeling, so we’re contributing to that feeling of safety and security across the entire downtown community.”

On Sept. 3, 2024, the board voted 6-1 to approve a revised plan after rejecting its original proposal in May 2024.

The library grounds have been misused for years, often by transients and particularly when the library is closed, Brantner said on Monday, as work on the improvements began.

People have illegally camped overnight, used drugs, been involved in altercations and participated in other criminal behavior, he said.

“The evening hours are when we have a lot of the vandalism and trespassing issues on the property,” Brantner said.

The main change is that a 7-foot-tall wrought-iron style fence will surround the perimeter of the large property that occupies four city blocks.  

The library had wanted an 8-foot-high contemporary see-through fence, but the review board asked for it to be lower and be wrought-iron-like to meet aesthetic standards.

The new fence will match an existing section of fencing that was installed more than a decade ago along West Kiowa Street between two other facilities on the campus, the Carnegie Building and the Knights of Columbus Hall, Brantner said.

An outdoor play area for children will be created off the children’s section from inside the library toward Kiowa Street.

Gates across the east-facing front of the library will slide and become hidden during open hours, to make the front plaza entrance more accessible and welcoming, according to N.E.S. Landscape Architects, which revamped the proposal to meet design criteria of the city and downtown area.

The upper parking lot is being reconfigured to improve handicapped parking and pedestrian access to the main courtyard in front of the building, Brantner said.

A lighted sign with the facility’s name and a familiar design is being added to the front as well. The sign will match welcome signs at key portals to downtown, according to Brantner.

The fence will be camouflaged behind low-water landscaping on the Kiowa Street side and set back 10 feet from the sidewalk, changes the review board also stipulated. And bike racks will move closer to the building.

Construction is scheduled to be finished by Dec. 31, and the upper parking lot will be closed for a few weeks, Brantner said, so concrete and asphalt work can be completed before winter arrives. Plants won’t go in until the spring.

The library will remain open throughout the project, he said.

Two phases of interior improvements included opening up and brightening the space by lowering the height of bookshelves, adding vivid paint and carpeting, making individual computer stations more visible to staff, enhancing security surveillance and other measures.

Brantner said suspensions from the library for unauthorized incidents, such as disruptive behavior, illegal use of marijuana products, inappropriate use of library privileges or property, noncompliance with staff, violation of safe-child guidelines and others, have been dramatically reduced.

“Prior to the beginning of work, Penrose was averaging 18-22 suspensions a month. Post completion of phase 2, they are averaging 10 per month,” Brantner said.

Parking on the top and lower levels will remain accessible to the public and require payment. Library patrons can get two free hours of parking by swiping their cards at the lots.

And a new pedestrian walkway will connect the library’s lower lot to Pikes Peak State College’s entrance, which is adjacent to the library to the west.

The college’s President, Lance Bolton, said in a letter to the review board last year that problems with crime and vagrants had contributed to enrollment decreases at the school’s downtown campus.

The downtown library has been a refuge for homeless people to congregate, particularly in the winter, when they can find warmth, use computers for free, charge their phones, fill water bottles and relax.

In casting the lone vote against the final proposal for the library’s exterior renovation, Downtown Review Board member Max Kronstadt and co-founder of the Colorado Springs Pro-Housing Partnership, said he doesn’t think fencing the property is the solution.

“Are we going to fence off the entire downtown community?” he said, adding that he’d like to see the city government add bathrooms and trash cans to the three city parks near Penrose Library.

Overall usage at Penrose Library is up since the debut of the interior upgrades, which cost about $400,000 combined, and Brantner said he expects that to continue as the exterior improvements are completed.

More families are attending children’s programs, he said, and everyday visits to the children’s area – which is now separate from the adult sections – have grown noticeably.

“Security officers report fewer interactions on a daily basis,” Brantner said. “We’re continuing to make sure we’re listening to the patrons’ needs. They asked for the campus to be refreshed and revitalized and made safer, and we’re doing everything we can to address those issues.”