Staircase

Long ago, Patti and Tag Cutchis knew they had the perfect floor plan in hand for their dream home. However, it took them eight years to find the right property on which to build.But once the couple -- he is a biomedical and electrical engineer, she sells computer software -- located their 3-acre site in Howard County's Highland Oaks development, the building process -- from breaking ground to moving in -- took about seven months. Their cedar house was constructed by McLean, Va., builder Patton and Rucks on land that originally was part of a 33-acre retreat for a Washington family.

In 1877, in the city of Holy Faith - Santa Fe capital of the U.S. territory of New Mexico, the Sisters of Loretto unveiled a miracle.They had come here some 20 years before at the behest of the energetic young Bishop Jean Baptist Lamy to establish a school for girls; and they had done so. But when their school's chapel was near completion, a flaw in the design became evident: There was no space for a staircase to the choir loft.So the nuns prayed to St. Joseph, patron saint of carpenters, in a nine-day novena.

We recently purchased a 50-year-old home. Its interior architecture is traditional; the foyer includes crown moldings as well as a staircase with a wooden handrail and spindles. This seems to be a good place for a more modern design direction. Do you have some suggestions?Bold colors, unadorned surfaces and simple forms transform a traditional space into a more modern setting. And to illustrate these elements, I've chosen this photo of an entrance hall remodeled by Michael Graves.A designer as well as an architect, Mr. Graves has retained the American look of this foyer while avoiding standard decorative motifs.

High within the Lanhams' 4,500-square-foot dream home sits a loft that can be reached only by squeezing up a spiral stairway. It's that loft that offers them the most comfort."

Houston -- They bring back memories of a time when people weren't too frantic to sit on a swing for a few minutes and watch day fade into night.They are a piece of Americana, conjuring up images of mom and dad and the kids lazily sitting around talking or just watching the neighbors walking by.They're front porches, and they're coming back."

A 13-year-old Atlanta boy visiting his father was clinging to life yesterday after being shot in the neck, and investigators are searching for a youth who was seen running from a Southwest Baltimore rowhouse, city police said.The young victim was taken to Bon Secours Hospital and later transferred to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where police said he was in critical and unstable condition. Police did not identify him because they were having difficulty locating relatives.Agent Robert W. Weinhold Jr., a police spokesman, said the boy's father's girlfriend arrived at the house in the first block of S. Franklintown Road about 1:20 p.m. and saw a male juvenile running out the door.

Until nine years ago, Carol and Jeff Sattler owned what their parents considered a part of the American Dream: a comfortable, nine-room split-level in the suburbs.But the Sattlers tossed their parents' dream away to buy their dream -- a turn-of-the-century, 15-room Queen Anne Victorian in the Hamilton section of Baltimore.Sure, they left a house with low maintenance for one that needs constant work, but they say they're happy."I like the oldness of it, the craftsmanship," says Mrs. Sattler, 40, a vice president at NationsBank.

Few eras in American history stir imaginations or passions as the memory of the antebellum South does. This period, epitomized by the white-columned manor house at the center of plantation life, has been idealized and castigated for the graciousness and arrogance, the gentility and cruelty which it represented.Visitors to Virginia don't need to rely on imagination alone to envision life on these legendary estates, but can tour "Plantation Country," which boasts some of the oldest and grandest plantation homes in the South.

The Camden Yards escalator accident that injured more than 40 baseball fans Saturday was caused when a metal shaft broke, sending the moving staircase "freewheeling" downward at high speed, specialists close to the investigation say.The tear in the shaft left the escalator's safety brakes ineffective, and the staircase continued its near free fall until several steps were mangled at the bottom. After the accident, a sneaker was left wedged in the jumble.Michael T. Shiflet, a consultant hired by Forensic Technologies International of Annapolis, said the break occurred within a large assembly that moves the steps along and is supposed to stop the escalator when problems occur.

Q: Because the staircase in our home is steeper and wider than average, the triangular wall along its side acts as a dominant element in the narrow entrance hall. Unfortunately, the shape of the wall is too awkward to permit use of the usual mirror-above-console-table combination.Do you have some suggestions for what to do about this wall? It's the only one in the downstairs part of the house that doesn't have some kind of opening.A: Yours is not an uncommon problem. As a result, interior designers have developed a variety of options that you may wish to consider.

I want to create a brighter and softer look in a foyer with a stained-wood floor and staircase. It's been suggested that I carpet the stairs, but I wonder whether you can offer a less expensive alternative. I'm willing to paint and to buy a small piece of furniture. Because such a space is typically small and filled with architectural elements, there are plenty of challenges to be met.Carpeting the staircase would introduce the color and pattern that your foyer lacks. But paint and a single piece of furniture can help, too. Heather Paper's book Decorating Ideas That Work, published by Taunton Press, shows one foyer idea.

What do you do after you've married off your daughter, watched her glide down your oak-floored foyer's sweeping Gone With the Wind staircase and through the glass-paneled double doors? Well, if you're Sharon and Bob Yellon, you sell the house. No, not to pay for the wedding, but to move on to other challenges - and other homes. The Yellons built this custom, executive estate home off Falls Road in 2005. It's not the place where they raised their family, but it is the place that upped their interest in planning and designing new homes.

The entrance hall in my house is small to begin with, and a staircase takes up one-third of its square footage. Can you suggest how to add some visual spark to what's now a nondescript space? I prefer traditional design, but I've got no room for an important piece of furniture. The secret to designing entrance halls, large or small, is to think not so much in terms of furniture but about color, texture and light. In a space the size of your own, that means giving emphasis to floor coverings, wallpaper and artwork.

I chuckled at the U.S. Census Bureau report that Maryland ranks second only to Utah in the share of its housing with four bedrooms or more. In the Baltimore of my youth, every house on the block had four or more bedrooms. I never gave it a second thought. And far from McMansions, these were Baltimore rowhouses, 22 to each side of the street. It was all very compact, didn't gobble up land, and the streetcar or bus line was just a short walk away. As for shopping, we had Howard Street or Waverly and our choice of corner drugstores for a soda fountain snack or newspaper.

What a bunch of rule-breakers those Seton High girls are. Back at the school Saturday, they tromped up and down the once off-limits golden stairs. They ate muffins and drank lemonade in the chapel. And then - in the hallways where talking was forbidden and students had to walk single-file between classes - Mary Sue Frankowski broke into song. "We are the girls of Seton High / You hear so much about," Frankowski sang, stomping her feet to keep time as others joined in the ruckus. "The people stop and stare at us / Whenever we go out."

The cat stretched lazily along the stone staircase. The steep staircases peppered the port of Rio Marina; they led to simple stuccoed buildings with terra cotta roofs and green shutters. They took you along narrow alleyways that dropped off into the glistening blue Mediterranean. I peered down the nearest alleyway. A woman, probably about 80, had planted herself firmly on a bench. Her skin was like tan leather that had been hardened by age. It was as though she had all the time in the world; content to spend it sitting, watching and commenting.

YASMIN GELLER couldn't sleep until she flew her carpenters to their Illinois headquarters and back to Green Spring Valley to rework the posts that she thought marred the contemporary lines of the 23-foot spiral staircase in her new home. The maple-and-glass staircase - a showstopper - had to be just right. After all, she and her husband, Ira, planned to spend the rest of their lives in the 12,000-square-foot, multimillion-dollar abode. The house was their investment. Another baby. A jewel.

It began as a reverent love affair. For Guy Thomas, it would be five long years of surreptitious detours and wishful sighs before he could call the shapely Queen Anne Victorian in Reservoir Hill his own. Adorned with castle-like turrets and curvy balconies, the house juts out like a proud queen reigning over a rowhouse-dotted Baltimore skyline. A white-trimmed porch embraces the front of the house, which is centered on a seven-bend staircase sweeping through four floors that include 11 bedrooms and 10 1/2 baths.

One of the oldest surviving buildings in Ellicott City is passing into new hands. Academy Financial, a Towson-based financial planning firm, will soon move into the George Ellicott House, built in 1789 by a son of one of the founders of the town then known as Ellicott Mills. "It's such a beautiful historical building," said Michael Ward, a partner in the firm. "They're not making any more of them. They're one of a kind." The three-story stone house, one of many that once lined the banks of the Patapsco River in what is now Baltimore County, is remarkable in part because it exists at all. Another stone home built next door for George Ellicott's brother, Jonathan, was destroyed by flooding from Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972.

Baltimore has its share of lively nightspots, but only a handful where the vibe is so mod, so surreal, that you're transported the minute you pass the velvet rope and hit the door. Club one at 300 E. Saratoga St fits the bill in more ways than, well, one. It's the kind of place clearly driven by the pleasure principle. The decor is fabulous, the staff and security courteous, and the DJs so hot, they keep things shaking like a quake with house, hip-hop and trip-hop. Then there's the clientele: a mix of ethnicities, folks in their 20s to 40s and plenty of "beautiful people."