120 E Main

While accommodating tourist and commercial demands, Aspen modern architecture also served community needs. According to a 1961 Aspen Times article, Benedict and Bayer were selected to design a new Pitkin County Library, and Benedict drafter Ellen Harland remembers working on the design. In 1966, the library at 120 E. Main Street opened, an auspicious occasion, with CBS news anchorman Walter Cronkite participating in the dedication. Now replaced by another public library designed in 1991 by Caudill, the 1966 red brick Wrightian library had a low-pitched hip roof, overhanging eaves, horizontal emphasis, and a clerestory band of windows.