Stairs - Speach #6

I'm returning to my roots for speach number 6. Again, thankfully, I've got a couple days to clean this up:

Project 6
Vocal Variety

“Stairs”
July 26, 2006

Stairs have been on my mind a lot lately. Designing a seven-story condominium with two levels of parking beneath, there are lots of stairs. In architecture, stairs are arguably one of the most significant elements. They’re dramatic and elegant, they’re metaphorical, they’re necessary and very code sensitive.

I. My stairs right now:
a. The stairs I’m drawing now are only utilitarian – this building has four elevators, we don’t expect the tenants to take the stairs except in an emergency.
b. Stairs are the most code sensitive parts of a building
i. They’re required exits – you can’t rely on the elevators in an emergency.
ii. Walls around stairs have to hold up to fire for two hours.
iii. They have to be a minimum width – at least 44 inches.
iv. Treads have to be at least 11 inches, the risers can’t be more than 7”, and they have to be consistent. The nose of a tread has to be 1”.
v. The handrails have to be at 36” above the nose of the tread and have to extend 12” beyond the top step and one tread plus 12” beyond the bottom step. An open stair has to have guardrails at 42”
vi. Balusters can’t be more than 4” apart.
vii. Landings have to be at every 12’ of rise, and have to match the width of the stair.
c. Stairs are a pain to draw!
i. Have to draw at exactly the right dimensions so you know how many steps you need and make sure you meet code.
ii. Have to think in three dimensions –
1. Draw in plan and in section.
2. Is there enough room in the plan?
3. Is there enough headroom underneath?
4. Do all the stairs line up vertically?
iii. Despite our best Computer Aided Drafting software, we still have to draw stairs line by line – the handrails and the guardrails crossing each other, turning, going up the next flight beyond.
iv. If anything changes (and things always change), you have to start all over with new calculations!

II. But while I’m drawing these, I’m thinking about everything a stair could be:
a. Memories –
i. Sesame Street: Cookie Monster as Alistair Cookie for Monsterpiece Theater presents “Upstairs, Downstairs,” starring Grover.
ii. House growing up – Mom did laundry downstairs.
1. Scar on my forehead from falling down the stairs as a baby, wanting to show her something.
iii. Sitting on the South Carolina statehouse stairs after prom with my friends and a couple bottles of Sparkling Cider.
iv. Climbing the stairs up the Eiffel Tower in Paris, all the way up, not wanting to look down.

b. Stairs can be extremely grand and dramatic
i. Think of beautiful Victorian houses with a grand staircase in the foyer, with a woman in a beautiful dress descending.
ii. Remember the Fiddler on the Roof? “If I Were a Rich Man”:
1. There would be one long staircase just going up,
And one even longer coming down,
And one more leading nowhere, just for show.
iii. Think of all the steps on the national capital building.
iv. Or a stadium surrounded by stairs and seats
v. Or, in the “Lord of the Rings,” stairs cut into the rock on a treacherous mountain pass

c. Stairs can be inventive and creative.
i. Look at stairs in modern home magazines – metals, glass, cable rails
ii. Thomas Jefferson brought from European monasteries: alternating tread / monk’s stairs, to save floor space

d. Stairs can be a metaphor for something much bigger
i. Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”
1. Reference to Jacob’s dream in Genesis of a ladder or stair (depending on the translation) with angels ascending and descending between Heaven and Earth
ii. Madeline L’Engle (children’s author of “A Wrinkle in Time” and lecturer on art and faith) talks her memories of going down stairs without touching them, and wanting to reclaim that freedom of childhood.
1. I used to have dreams about flying down those stairs to our basement and flying around the family room. (What did that mean?)
iii. For someone disabled or in a wheelchair, stairs can be a barrier and a reminder of an insensitive world.
1. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, requiring access ramps at any change of level.
iv. Or for someone in a fire in a tall building, this is the only safe place and the only way out.
1. Brings us back to the code and my utilitarian stair sections.

So, remember me next time you climb the stairs to your office building or home. Remember what a stair can be. By now, my stairs had better be done. I have a presentation on Friday, even if the condominium tenants will probably almost always take the elevator.