Name: Set one tread at a time.
Uploaded: 2026-08-04
Description: From the drawing to the finished helix. Fifty-eight seconds of a stair that took the better part of the job — steel up first, treads formed on it, glass last.

The stair is the one element that had to be right in drawing, in shop, and in steel — a circle cut through the house, carrying glass treads, and signed by an engineer to loads most houses never see.

Treads: 1¾″ laminated glass
Stringers: HSS steel, with metal railings
Guardrail design load: 50 plf line load · 200 lb concentrated
Stair live load: 100 psf
Engineering: Signed and sealed by Nodal Structures — Carlos A. Nodal, Florida PE 49285; special-inspector stamped

Every value on this page is taken from the sealed shop drawings. Better photography of the stair is being sourced; this page will expand when it arrives.

The install

Set one tread at a time.

From the drawing to the finished helix. Fifty-eight seconds of a stair that took the better part of the job — steel up first, treads formed on it, glass last.

From drawing to steel

The geometry on paper. The object in the building.

The permitted stair sheet as a drawing, not a download: framing plans, the laminated-glass tread detail, engineering… — 01The permitted stair sheet as a drawing, not a download: framing plans, the laminated-glass tread detail, engineering seals and the City of Miami approval stamp are all visible together. It explains the geometry the photographs below had to deliver.

A plan sheet on a table, a hand resting on it. The circular stair is drawn in plan — the geometry that had to be right… — 02A plan sheet on a table, a hand resting on it. The circular stair is drawn in plan — the geometry that had to be right on paper before any steel was cut.

Closer: a finger at the spiral stair's plan geometry, dimension callouts around the perimeter. This is the problem the… — 03Closer: a finger at the spiral stair's plan geometry, dimension callouts around the perimeter. This is the problem the fabricator solved before the first piece left the shop.

04The finished stair: white spiral, glass balustrade, glazed wall behind. The result that the drawings had to earn.

Finished, from the floor above. Twenty-odd laminated glass treads turning on the steel core, the curved glass guard… — 05Finished, from the floor above. Twenty-odd laminated glass treads turning on the steel core, the curved glass guard following them down, and the stainless handrail holding the line the whole way.

And from below, looking up. The same helix read in reverse: the treads stacked into the spiral, the curved balustrade… — 06And from below, looking up. The same helix read in reverse: the treads stacked into the spiral, the curved balustrade seen edge-on, and light falling straight down the well.

Specification

Set one tread at a time.

The geometry on paper. The object in the building.