Traveling with a Master Stair Builder? Naturally, Our Eyes Open to Stairways Everywhere

As a jewelry designer by trade, I have a great love of beauty, design and craft and use of quality materials. I see a beautiful stair as, similar to jewelry, the final accessory that completes the outfit, or in this case, the mystique of a building. In many cases, stairs, like jewelry, can become the primary expression of beauty and uniqueness that completes a design or a look.

Looking to be inspired? Head to Iowa. On a recent business trip there with Shawn and Marilyn Christman, owners of Seattle Stair and Design, we detoured to the local university with its historic buildings and Iowa’s original capitol building, circa 1856. We strolled through the buildings, discovering grand stair after grand stair of wood, cast iron and steel, and tile. The capitol building itself has the most beautiful spiral stair.

It was fascinating to watch Shawn, a master, measuring and examining each detail of these creations. He jumped into master teacher mode and used it as an opportunity to share with me detailed explanations of the design and building techniques that were used, what is changed from today, code issues, craftsmanship, materials, and more. I felt incredibly lucky to have this first hand, apprentice like training handed to me as I too was taken by the beauty and craftsmanship of these historic, grand staircases.

–Phoebe, Seattle Stair
Photo from Old Capitol Museum, Iowa.

Dilemma Leads to Invention: a New Way of Building Stairs

Back in 1982 on a project nearing completion on Whidbey Island, Shawn Christman arrived on the jobsite to find a staircase substructure framed with the kind of warped, wet scrap lumber leftover at the end of a job. Nothing was true. Absolutely nothing was plumb. It was nearly impossible for Shawn and his small team from the then four-year old Seattle Stair to come in with their hardwoods and finesse a usable and attractive stair out of the mess.

This maddening experience propelled Shawn to invent a better way to build a stair.

Research led him to an old-time stair-maker whose work had landed in the Smithsonian. Shawn studied the century’s old technique of designing a theoretically perfect construct to fit the hole (here, a stairwell). He spent years perfecting the process where he and his crew would come in and measure that hole then “disappear” back to their studio for a few months to create a hand-in-glove structure that would be brought back to the job site, installed, and best yet fit perfectly and be pleasing to the eye. When factoring in the complicated geometry and artistic rigors this is no small feat.