Architects and town planners are to be recruited in the Government's drive against obesity. Staircases will need to be made more attractive and roads narrowed or even closed to discourage cars, under guidance to be sent to developers and authorities. Telegraph
6 Comments
This reminds me of the beautiful grand staircase at the main entrance of the Indy City/County Building (architect William Ford, of Lennox Mathews Simmons Ford who designed and built for himself the house I now live in), a very nice 1960's Modern building. The main lobby staircase is wide at the bottom and sweeps up to the mezzanine level, where the public hearing rooms for zoning etc. are located.
it is an obvious but lovely civic gesture: this space belongs to the people, who gather here to discuss issues of our chared community.
Nowadays, of course, the lobby space has been butchered by metal detectors and the grand stair is completely roped off. And this is a common fate for grand public stairs/entries. What a sad, sad, scared state we live in.
richard jackson, former director of the cdc, was on a sort of 'hide the elevator/celebrate stairs' theme for a while. seems it flies in the face of open/obvious universal accessibility a little, but that can be managed.
i'm working on a project ABOUT accessibility right now and the primary access from 1 to 2 is a huge ramp front-and-center in the lobby with the elevator tucked a little off to the side. the ramp as a hub of the social space of the facility, a place to be seen and from which to see.
fat people also don't sleep as much, so give them better bedrooms.
Steven, that sounds interesting... can you post something more about this ramp project somewhere?
soon. i keep wanting to, but don't have pic files of anything. and it's being generated in revit which - as pm - i don't actually have, so...
i gave up on using the elevators at my office bldg, and only use the stairs; our office is on the fifth floor, so it's been a challenge, but my options consist of a.elevators b. fire rates stairways...not the most welcoming way to work;
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.