A four-story atrium, filled with rocks hand-picked from the rugged mountainside site, bisects this Boulder, Colo., home. The stair that runs through it is the result of homeowners who are engineers and entrepreneurs working with an architect who’s also a sculptor. With the encouragement of his clients, Laurence Verbeck played with old materials in new ways until he found a combination that allowed the stairs to be “as translucent and free-floating as possible” but still attract attention. He chose sanded acrylic to give treads translucency and slip resistance. Steel stringers in the shape of a helix create a smooth ascension through the space.
To marry these high-tech materials with their natural environs, Verbeck designed a railing of abstracted sticks and twigs. Steel rods whose diameters vary from ÂĽ to Âľ inch were twisted and woven to look like they had grown in that pattern. He drew detailed sketches for the fabricator, but the design wasn’t finalized until building began. “Some of the shapes could only be formed by seeing them in person from various angles,” explains Verbeck who constantly monitored gaps between rods to make sure each one met the 4-inch building code. An acid-washed patina gives the steel an organic texture. As a final touch, the owner engineered LED strips that are tucked into a routed groove at the back of each tread, highlighting the twirling stair in soft light.
