Ferragamo Store Cascade Stairs

In collaboration with architect Michael Gabellini, Guy Nordenson and Associates designed a series of stairs for Ferragamo stores in New York, Venice, and Bologna. The most ambitious design was for the Venice store, which provided an opportunity to reinterpret Palladio’s “cascade stair” at the nearby Accademia. The Ferragamo Venice stair has four runs of steps and three landings and is constructed entirely of steel plate. The treads are machined and welded hollow, sharp-cornered steel tubes, 2 inches tall and 14 inches wide, and each float independently, except for small solid blocks at the outer ends that connect the treads and discreetly transfer the load. The central wall of the stair is a truss made of solid steel rectangular plates and is covered in wire mesh. The truss diagonals align with the stair runs and have holes machined to receive the solid pins that project on the inside end of each tread. The square ends of the pins lock each tread into the truss diagonal, resisting the twisting moment resulting from the load cascade.