Arthur Stratton · Series IX. Internal Staircases
Plate LVIII. Monumental Staircase with “Straight” Flights
Plate LVIII. — The example illustrated in the plan, section and perspective sketch on this Plate has been taken from the admirable design for the grand staircase of the Federal Palace in Mexico City. It is without question one of the most stately compositions ever designed and is noteworthy on account of its direct simplicity. The two broad staircases are arranged in lofty halls on either side of a central vestibule, a treatment which admits of the open circulation being preserved without check at all levels, and allows of the maximum effect of spaciousness. Such grandeur is only suitable for buildings of the first rank where large assemblies meet and where civic and semi-state functions are performed.
Public-domain text (1925), transcribed from the archive.org OCR of the first edition and cleaned for reading: line-end hyphens rejoined, running heads, page numbers and the captions of the text figures removed, and obvious misreadings corrected. Stratton’s hundred plates are not reproduced, nor their engraved captions or the index to the illustrations; each Series is divided at his commentary on each plate, and the chapter titles follow the plate headings. The live figures are this book’s own.