This signature staircase comprises a plate-fabricated stringer with an integral glass shoe that supports a glass guardrail. BMI appreciated Feature Walters’ management of the project enough to expand the scope to include a three-storey feature wall and glass lobby enclosure.
Feature Walters provided design-build services, as well as fabrication and installation of this signature staircase. We worked in partnership with Benchmark Builders Inc. We had previously worked with Benchmark but the College Board stair was the first job we subcontracted to them. Metropolitan Walters installed and field welded all mid-landings and runs of treads.
The project required a high-gloss white paint that we applied directly to the shop primer on site and hand polished until it shone. The stair’s signature detail is the guardrail glass, which laps over the face of the stringer for 14 inches before entering the shoe. We back-painted the glass face within this zone but left it clear higher up.
This stringer-and-glass structure wraps around the stairs and supports a floor-to-ceiling glass lobby above. The structural connections in the exposed plate called for field welds, which can create distortion and entail costly, time-consuming clean-up so we engineered proprietary connection details that reduced weld requirements and locations; the result was precise and pristine.
