After a few years of living in their unique duplex apartment in the West Village, the Padia family decided to rework the entry—a central double-height stair hall. An existing wood and glass straight-run stair bisected the space. It wasn’t visually appealing, and it created a cramped, inefficient entry hall and an overly large, underutilized landing at the floor above. The family hired The Turett Collaborative to develop a unique staircase and improve the layouts around it.
Studying many different stair configurations through sketches, digital renderings, and hand-built and 3D-printed models, the team settled on an organic curved stair profile that sweeps through the double-height space. The departure and landing points of the stair allowed for the reconfiguration of the adjacent spaces on the lower and upper floors, creating room for a proper entrance hall and enlarging one of the children’s bedrooms upstairs.
The curved stair is encased in a plaster shell—a tight spiral at the inner curve and a large convex shell at the exterior—“squeezed” by the adjacent walls and bulging toward the dining room and windows beyond. The result is a statement-making entry into and through the apartment with a staircase design that continues to reveal itself at each turn.
PHOTOS: Adam Kane Macchia unless otherwise noted
Retrofit Team
Architect: The Turett Collaborative
