Really? Engineer? Architect? In MS?

I'm guessing the CARPENTER tied the landings into the columns, and added some hope.
... and nobody living there could afford to get heavy anyway.

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

Mike - re architect and engineer - I couldn't find a smiley face with a tongue-in-cheek.

Check out Eng-Tips Forum's Policies here:
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

A really neat framing job...

Kudos to the carpenter.

Dik

Maybe the carpenter had help from this fellow:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loretto_Chapel

hokie66 - Now that is a spectacular piece of woodwork but I would not have fancied climbing up it before the handrail was fitted.

JAE,

It looks feasible. If both sides of the stair rails are tied solidly to their respective floors, then the only possible movement is to rotate up and down. This can be tied to the columns. I am not saying they did it that way. If you are going to do a carpentry project, you have to do at least one thing that looks cool.

Scroll down this page. There are some cool stairs at the bottom.

--
JHG

It's amazing what you can do when you don't know what can't be done.

I guess I just see the corner of the landing at the columns as being adequately supported vertically.

But the diagonal corner of the landing, away from the columns, would to me simply sag downward unless the far side stringer was somehow a kinked, or bent, rigid member that would have continuous stiffness through the bend at the top riser and extend past and under the landing.

It is very difficult to get wood moment connections to work.

And based on the era of this construction I would think the whole thing just sort of hung together, until the wood and fasteners started to get weathered a bit...a continuous, slow increase in flexibility until someone had to come along and insert a post under that interior landing corner.

Check out Eng-Tips Forum's Policies here:
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

The carpenter must have used this design to catapult his career.

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)

Ah yes, I am very familiar with the architect's choice of materials here.......the ever popular leve-tanium. Very strong, very lightweight, and invisible to the naked eye. Often found in very long spans with little space allotted for framing.

MotorCity - Yes! - that is how this cantilever got constructed I think:

Check out Eng-Tips Forum's Policies here:
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

Didn't the Spruce Goose have wooden stairs?

As to cantilevers I had many lectures in this lecture hall in my first year at university:



Legend has it the 2 supporting posts about 3rd of the way out on the cantilever were added only after they found it deflected excessively once filled with Engineering undergrads.

I had fun doing this series of cantilevers several years ago. But they all worked in terms of strength and stiffness.

Check out Eng-Tips Forum's Policies here:
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies