Stephanie Kingsnorth, an architect with Pfeiffer Partners Architects in Los Angeles, led the Pfeiffer team that devised the plan for the Tutt Library renovation and addition. “The library has amazing bones and incredible concrete work,” she says, noting her regard for Walter Netsch’s design and the mid-century Modernist ethos. “We respect the building and wanted to weave something around it — the ribbon. We were wrapping it up like a gift.”

The “ribbon” on Tutt Library is a colorful Swisspearl band that tops the fourth-floor addition and swirls up, over, and around the building before heading for the ground. Swisspearl is a composite cement façade panel, and the three shades of red on the irregular-sized rhomboid-shaped panels are arranged in horizontal strips to form the façade. The angular, varying shades of red might remind one of the beloved Palmer Hall, or nearby Garden of the Gods or Ute Pass. “It’s 100 percent Colorado Springs,” Kingsnorth says.