A Step Above
Designer Richard Hallberg speaks about the grand, modern staircase that became the focal point of this Back Bay home.
Photograph by Eric Roth
Sculpture was the inspiration, the starting point. The idea was to create a clean, modern interior inside this beautiful old brownstone. Because the space was long and narrow, with very few windows on the sides, it was important to get light through the middle of the apartment. To accomplish that, we created this wonderful, ribbonlike three-story staircase. The stone on the steps is aged Lucia Azul, which we had antiqued to give it a matte textured finish. We used the same stone throughout the rest of the house as well. The metal structure for the staircase was prebuilt, and then craned through the roof—it had to be corkscrewed through the skylight. Quite an architectural feat. —As told to Matt Mullen
