You're never supposed to cut any member of a prefabricated roof truss, so how can you make a wide staircase opening that's perpendicular to the run of the trusses?
So deft, so fast, so razor-sharp, his line skims across the surface - three undulating lines for a river; chins surfacing as quick curves in the tide; flames darting from tortured feet in spiralling whorls; a staircase opening in a rock-face as a dizzying zigzag of acute angles.
The McKees' staircase opens, too, but until pneumatics can be installed, it is propped open by a two-by-four.
The staircase opens onto a formal gallery designed with large art in mind, and there is a private 332-square-foot courtyard.
The entry staircase opens to a reception area in the spacious central living and dining room, whose floor-to-ceiling glass front wall looks out over treetops to mountains beyond.
Todd Stevens and Avi Malol, Prudential Douglas Elliman (212 727-6193 or (212 321-7137; www.elliman.com TAXES: $1,087 a year PROS: A modern spinelike staircase opens up the core of the town house, allowing light from a huge skylight above to filter through all the floors.
Soon the staircase opened up entirely on her left (the stairs didn't have a handrail), and, afraid to look down into the space below, she kept to the right-hand side of the steps, brushing the earthen wall gently with her fingertips as she descended.
Upon entry, the darkness of the black staircase opens into a series of golden spaces — not the shiny tinsel-gold of five-star hotels in places like Abu Dhabi or Hong Kong, but soft gold leaf on arches and walls constructed from small blocks of raw oak.
He then sits on the staircase, opens the envelope, and reads the letter.
Enter an unpresuming metal door with minimal signage, descend down an uninviting staircase, open the interior door: a wave of frivolity bursts forth, and for a brief moment, "Life is beautiful, the girls are beautiful, even the orchestra is beautiful".
If I see a spark of interest, I'll continue, suggesting postprandial activities, pleasant "hidden" staircases opening onto stunning vistas only blocks away.
