Aerial view of spiral wood staircase.

Spiral Belvedere Home

Challenge

More often than not, unique designs are what truly make a home feel like a masterpiece. In this case, the design by Sutton Suzuki Architects included a twisted “potato chip” custom stair frame in the middle of the space. The enclosure was created in the builder’s shop but because they were behind on fabrication, by the time the stair was ready for positioning the house was closed in. We had to devise a new way to install it.

Top of wood stairs on second story.
Skylight used to install staircase.

Solution

The only method to get the massive staircase inside was to carefully crane it over the four story roof and thread it down through a large circular skylight. Made up of a collection of floating stringers, the stairway had to fit perfectly into steel buckets at each floor. After the stringers were fastened, the walnut treads were fitted and the twisted metal railing was custom forged. Using a crane and precision installation, the stairway was a perfect fit!