Welcome to How They Pulled It Off, where we take a close look at one particularly challenging aspect of a home design and get the nitty-gritty details about how it became a reality.

When Jane Lea, principal at Lea Architecture’s clients came to her with their project—a townhouse in Greenpoint, Brooklyn—she knew that the staircase in the home would be the focal point. “The clients are a Swiss and Swedish couple with two children, who split their time between Europe and New York,” says Lea. “They really wanted the stairwell to be a main sculptural element in the home. We all recognized that it had the potential for a lot of impact.”

The staircase was always going to be the centerpiece of the renovation, but there were a few logistics to be sorted out first. “Our client wanted a stair in Cor-Ten steel because of the Falu red that’s characteristic to their home country,” Lea says. But that material was cost-prohibitive, so Lea and her team had to pivot. “We wanted the stair to look pure and singular and to feature a material that was practical for the family and would age well,” she explains. “The client initially pushed for pine, but we countered with oak. It’s a much harder wood and the most resilient in light of all the use that a very social family, with active and growing kids, would get out of it.”

Once this aesthetic and practical decision was settled, there were some other considerations to take. “When the stair was idealized as steel, it was self-supporting,” Lea says. “When we pivoted to wood, it required rethinking the landings, the connections, and the structural details.” To capture the idea of the stairwell feeling “contained” or like a continuous chamber or pathway, the architects had to reengineer the construction of the landings at each level. Additionally, the clients wanted their home to have a Swedish style, simple and clean.

Executing this feature required some clever use of space and light. Here's how they did it.

How they pulled it off: A dramatic staircase

Instead of the Cor-Ten steel, the architects recommended wide-paneled rift white oak, finished in a custom, color-matched stain.
The stairway landings were designed to line up with the floor plates and ceilings, creating a light well from the skylight on the upper level down to the entrance level.
The team ensured that each landing was inside the railings, creating a distinction within the floor plan that helped to define the different areas of the house and lent to the gestural impact of the stairs.

“The final result introduces an anchoring color and material palette throughout the house,” Lea says. In the end, the staircase satisfied the clients’ desire for a standout moment in their renovation—and was also an exercise in thinking on the fly for the architects.

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Jane Lea, Lea Architecture / @lea.architecture

General Contractor: Land and Shore Creative

Design Consultant: Note Design Studio / @notedesignstudio

Structural Engineering: Madsen Consulting Engineering, PLLC

Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing: Gallen Engineer LLC

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This post has been updated.