Everyone knows the importance of taking the stairs rather than the elevator, although not everyone does.  There are lots of things that can impact our decision to take the stairs – our fitness levels, how high in the building we may need to go, whether we’re injured or disabled, or even simply our energy levels on any given day.  But does the aesthetic appeal of a staircase ever come into question?  David Burney think so. 

 A Celebration of Stairs

Burney, a New York City Commissioner of the Department of Design and Construction says that we should make the most of the staircases in every building, and by making them aesthetically pleasing, we can encourage more people to climb them[1].  He, perhaps rightly, points out that in trying to make life easier, architects and building planners have also made life sedentary and this, in turn, has made us lose our love of the grand staircases that are so often a focal point in old buildings.  In their place, we see elevator shafts, perhaps with a small sign indicating the way to a drab staircase that is there for necessity alone.