Our stairs have been one of the pieces of our house from the very beginning that we wanted to be a center point of the design. Even some of the original designs that we didn’t select had very bold design staircase, however the one we settled on was the one that was the most striking.

Our staircase would be an open design, and the central focal point of our entry. An open riser design constructed of steel, the stairs cantilevered off a main center beam and panels of perforated steel. To contrast the heavy industrial feel of the structure, the treads are made out of a beautiful birch and the entire structure rests against a wall of exposed concrete. The combination of these materials seems to almost complete encapsulate our house, the only thing missing is some glass.

The landing at the mid-level had been covered in sheets of scrap plywood until this week when the components of our glass landing arrived. A structurally configured aluminum frame, black gasket tape and 3 sheets of 1.5″ glass, each weighing roughly 150lbs. a piece. We lined the frame with the gasket tape then removed the plywood from the landing to expose the open steel frame. This was now the tricky part. We fastened the aluminum frame to the steel structure then placed pieces of plywood over top it to give us a place to walk and stand. With my dad’s assistance we carried the glass to the landing where I then handed it across to Stacy. From there I went below to a ladder to get a better position to lower the glass into place. Because the fit of the glass was almost exact to the frame (and it’s weight so heavy) there was no way to gently lower the glass into place from above. Stacy and my dad helped me to position each sheet from above and then I lowered it into position from below. It took about 15 minutes to place all three sheets but the results were spectacular.

I’m sure it will take a little time for all of us to get used to walking out onto the glass landing and I am sure that it will certainly cause some uneasiness for some of our guests as it really is a truly remarkable feeling.

A close up of our steel stairs with he birch treads.

The hand-off.

my 5 year old captures the act as we set the glass into place.

It’s set in place.

The final piece goes into place.

The view from below.

OK, maybe it doesn’t take a 2 year old that long to get comfortable with the idea of a glass landing.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 27th, 2008 at 9:17 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.