[lbo-talk] School Debate: Central Focus

[Chuck Grimes]

Excellent post. Last night I was trying to compose something along these 
very lines. When I got out of UCB grad school in art, I went to work as a 
carpenter apprentice. We were re-modeling California Hall which was built in 
1906-9. The east entrance had a dual oval stairway. It connected the lobby 
with the first floor, which was a mezzanine

The building knowledge of how to build these stairways was staggering. Only 
the oldest and most skilled carpenters knew how to construct the concrete 
forms for what is called an oval helicoid.

Most of these stairs go back to the early Baroque. One of the more famous is 
in the Palazzo Barberini, done by Borromini. The ones I saw constructured 
used steel encased in concrete, which was designed to be
self-supporting---hence no pillars or supports.

CG