San Francisco balcony and stair, fotos and text

SEATTLE, WA  |  E. Helen St. | Thursday, June 10, 2010 - So here finally are fotos from the San Francisco project. Hopefully you remember images of the old stair configuration. An earlier SF post has one for sure. I'll add a couple more later. For now, here is the new.

The plum tree (foreground) defined the project in a lot of ways. The deck's prow comes within inches of the plum's trunk, and the deck partially enters the tree canopy before turning to flank the upstairs kitchen and access the stair. We reconfigured the drainpipe to empty into the tree above head-height, so that rainwater will cascade down the tree, soaking the bark, before entering the ground.   






*






*

If you were standing on Sistah Margaret's garden patio, off of her living room, and were to look up, this is more or less what you would see. Note the drainpipe, reaching just beyond the deck "prow", where it will empty into the tree.




*


*

This view shows the mitered corner of the deck - the prow - from above, looking down thru the rail. The silver of the drainpipe spout is just visible below the deck. Margaret calls the prow a beak. So it's also a beak.


*





*

*



* 


A similar view, looking up this time. Idea being that all goes to the plum tree (above). The mitered decking all moves to the tree. The structure of the deck cantilevers to the tree. The drainpipe ferries rain to the tree, watering it.  






*

The mitered decking, connecting the tree and the house.




*








*

Screw pattern showing convergence of structure (joists) below. The drainpipe runs right below, between the main parings of screws.




*





*

The drainpipe is suspended from a threaded rod. The rod is anchored in blocking screwed between the joists.

*














*

Some poetic wonderfulness. Silouette of drainspout above tiny beginnings of a new branch on the plum tree. Cabling and stair rails in background.



*




*

The stairs themselves. The stairs are super light, super transparent, with no risers. Redwood treads and uprights and cedar rail. You can strum the cables, tuned to about a g-minor. The stairs also function, as the foto shows, as a sundial. Straight vertical light slots would be solar noon. And the stair faces west. So this foto would have been taken at approximately 2 pm, give or take. The upstairs neighbor Matthew will use these stairs to get to the garden.


*




*

 One of the two rail ends. The edges are chamfered so they're relatively soft to hands. The garden side rail ends sooner, the one shown here, three treads higher, so that as you come down the stairs, the stair opens sooner on one side, leading you into the garden.






*












*

 Detail of the rail end. The metal buttons are the anchors for the cable. More often you would see a 4x4 post here. We built custom uprights from 2x2s and 2x4s, gluing and screwing them in a t-section that has the same or more structural heft as a 4x4, and is more lightweight, more minimal.


*





*

This detail of the uprights shows another plus of the t-section. The 2x4s of the rail frame slide right in and get good anchorage. The decking is notched to make way for the 2x4 portion of the upright. The 2x2 sits just above the decking.



*




*

This is the juncture of deck and stair. On the left, the runs of deck cable end in nuts and washers. To the right, the deck toggle turnbuckles of the stair cable begin. 




*








*

The north side of the deck, with the next-door neighbor's Japanese maple. The turnbuckles for the cable - the silver casings to the right - have all been painstakingly lined up and cranked tight.






*


*

The view as you come out of the upstairs neighbor's kitchen and look to the right (west), into the upper story of the plum tree. Later this summer you'll be able to stand there and eat fruit right from the tree with no hands.



*








*

The most important view of all, Sistah Margaret's. Here, from her living room. The view out her kitchen window has also been opened up. Before she looked at the underside of a closed stair while doing dishes at the sink. Now, with the stairs moved north, and landing slightly deeper in the garden, she looks into garden when she's at the sink. Chi flowing again.

*******
fjksdflsdfkl