History of Library 21c

Library 21c stands on a site with one of the most unusual and technologically driven histories of any Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) facility. 

The building at 1175 Chapel Hills Drive was constructed for Brown Disc Manufacturing, a local company founded in 1981 to produce 3.5-inch floppy disks. After expanding into a larger facility across Chapel Hills Drive—now the Academy School District 20 administrative building—the company anticipated further growth and commissioned an additional building (now Library 21c) to house its projected workforce. That growth never came, and by the time construction finished in late 1984, the company was already in decline, leaving the new building vacant. In the late 1980s it was purchased by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), but DEC’s downturn in the early 1990s again left the space unused. MCI later acquired the building for use as a call center, a use that ended abruptly in 2004 when the company closed the site, citing the newly established National Do Not Call Registry of 2003. The building then sat empty for eight more years.

Coincidentally, 2004 was also the year PPLD opened Briargate Library, a storefront branch serving the far-north end of the rapidly growing city. Briargate quickly became one of the District’s busiest locations but did not meaningfully reduce the strain on East Library to the south. Expanding Briargate Library became an increasing priority for the Board of Trustees, though viable and affordable sites were scarce in the booming North Academy corridor.

That changed when the long-vacant former MCI building was offered to PPLD at well below market cost. The Board seized the opportunity, noting that the acquisition increased the District’s total available floor space by nearly 50%. The purchase solved multiple challenges at once: it provided a permanent north-side home for a full-service library, and it opened the possibility of relieving overcrowding at both East and Penrose libraries by relocating many administrative and support offices. The Board soon approved what became known as the Tri-Building Project, a coordinated effort to shift departments such as IT, Finance, and Collection Management into the new facility, freeing East and Penrose libraries to reclaim space for public use and to modernize their services. The PPLD Foundation organized a dedicated 21st Century Library Committee to support these efforts with targeted fundraising.

The Board of Trustees unanimously adopted the name “Library 21c,” echoing the work of the 21st Century Library Committee and reflecting the District’s vision for a forward-looking public library. Preparations accelerated as hundreds of leftover cubicles from MCI were cleared from the interior, and Briargate Library closed in May 2014 in anticipation of its relocation.

Library 21c opened to the public on June 21, 2014 with 5,076 people visiting on the first day. True to its name, it emerged as the District’s most modernized library and the centerpiece of PPLD’s investment in creative and technological services. The District’s award-winning studios relocated there, and the building introduced a significantly expanded makerspace with laser cutters, 3D printers, CNC equipment, and digital-creation tools that continue to support entrepreneurship, education, and artistic work throughout the region. Meanwhile, the Tri-Building Project enabled East Library to remodel and dedicate more of its footprint to patron use, strengthening the District’s overall capacity.

Today, Library 21c is one of the busiest locations in PPLD, and more than any other facility in the District, it embodies a long history of reinvention—transforming a succession of high-tech and corporate spaces into a modern public library.