An integrated glass staircase in an historic university building.

This is a design for a glass staircase in the Old Red Gym, the University of Wisconsin’s historic Armory building. Installed over the ceremonial main staircase of the original building, these glass stairs are arranged to reveal “the presence of the past”. The treads of the staircase are sandblast-etched with images from historic Wisconsin.

Acquired through the University archives, these images are the “memory-pictures” of the University, and they suggest the layers of people and events that are embodied by the University in this seminal building. Users of the building are able to look through these layers of history to see a montage of historic moments at the Old Red Gym.