Health Care Building Stairs & Mezzanine Railing

A new health care building in Northern California, with a main staircase and open mezzanine that the architect designed around daylight. Glass railing was the right system for exactly that reason: the stair sits against full-height windows, and anything opaque would have cut the light off from the lobby below.

The scope

• Main staircase: glass guards on both sides of the stair runs, with continuous stainless handrails
• Switchback landing: glass following the stair turns without breaking the sightline
• Mezzanine: glass guardrails along the upper corridor overlooking the lobby

Commercial requirements, handled

Health care projects don't leave room for interpretation. The system was built to commercial guard requirements — 42-inch guard height and graspable stainless handrails on the stair runs — and installed on the construction schedule, coordinated with the GC and the other trades in the building.

Why glass in a health care setting

Daylight and sightlines are design priorities in modern health care buildings, and this one uses both: the stair reads as part of the lobby rather than a closed stairwell, and light from the window wall reaches the ground floor. Glass is also a practical surface in a building that gets cleaned constantly — no balusters, no paint, nothing to touch up.