Chicago Tribune — “From Spanish Steps to the New Apple Store, Stairs Provide Spatial Drama”

October 22, 2017

“Chicago architect Jeanne Gang has used bleacher seating to enliven buildings like the year-old Writers Theatre, where the stairs help furnish a striking wood-framed atrium.

‘They really wanted to encourage discussion about the plays, before and after the shows,’ Gang said in an email Friday. ‘We thought that making the steps … into a social space where people could congregate and hang out would serve this function and at the same time they could connect the theater to the street life for people-watching. … Now kids have started using the steps for studying after school, and the theater company is contemplating other uses for the space,’ including a cafe.

Fortuitously for the purposes of this column, Gang wrote from Rome, where she’s doing research. She was recently hanging out at the Spanish Steps. ‘It’s such a good example of the city as a theater—where you can use the steps to sit and people-watch,’ she wrote.

‘In general,’ she added, ‘I think there is a shift … toward wanting … social connectivity with other people in the place where you live. By designing … urban steps that offer seating and sightlines you can encourage human interaction and provide a welcome invitation to be a part of a community.’”