Forget the Glass Ceiling, What About the Glass Stairs?

A shiny new courthouse recently opened in Franklin County, Ohio, but not all of the buildings residents are happy with some of the modern design touches. Specifically, Judge Julie Lynch is questioning the wisdom of a glass staircase that gives people standing underneath a clear view of everything above them. {CNN} If you’re a woman – or one of the few men (hi, Marc Jacobs) who favors skirts or dresses, perhaps you see the problem.

While security guards and others “hope people will be mature” about the glass staircase, Lynch notes that if people were “mature” they probably wouldn’t need the courthouse in the first place.

Fair point, but we think there might be another solution that would be appropriate to the setting and modern decor goals: two-way glass. Place the glass so that those looking up only see a reflection, and those walking up the stairs can still look down and have the illusion of transparency. The modern design remains in place, the skirt and dress wearing public can walk up stairs without worrying about immature people snapping illicit camera phone photos. And really, aside from what we’ve seen of TV police stations, would there be any better place than a courthouse for two-way glass?

Voila, aesthetic decisions maintained, privacy protected and if a film can be applied to the existing glass to give it a two-way effect, likely a fix that can me made for less than it would cost to drag the design team back into court.