getting a leg up

A Mies Architectural Sketch, shot at MoMA with a cameraphone, and then messed with a little bit.

"God is in the details," Mies van der Rohe is supposed to have said. He did not simply mean that building details are important; he meant that they are the very soul of architecture.

An easy way to appreciate this is to look at how different architects handle a very simple detail, such as a door handle, a baseboard—or a stair balustrade. The function of a balustrade is straightforward: It is both a guardrail and a climbing support. Yet the variety of designs that can perform these functions is vast.

From « Upstairs, Downstairs: How Small Details Make Great Architects », a photo essay on -- yep -- stairs, in today's Slate.