Frank Gehry's Sculptural Staircase
Image Credit: Eittem
Image Credit: Eittem

When you see the world as a canvas for your imagination, even the most mundane structures become an opportunity for inventive design. For a visionary like Frank Gehry, the world presents itself in this way, architecture functioning as an outlet for artistry. The Gehry-designed spiral staircase at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto captures this artistic approach, material and form merging to create a structure both visually striking and practical.

Douglas-fir clad and sculptural, the staircase overlooks a central court in the museum, rising to the glass ceiling like a tree reaching towards sunlight. Still, it is not just a sculpture to marvel at from a distance. Functionally, it connects multiple gallery floors, culminating in a sweeping view of the city after 138 steps.¹ A wandering gallery patron may find themselves falling in love on these stairs, too — at least, that was Gehry’s grand intention. He designed it to be narrow in some points, so that people would naturally encounter each other, perhaps experiencing a “love at first sight” moment. The staircase’s success in sparking love matches is unconfirmed, but the design alone certainly sweeps you up in its own romance.  

Image Credit: Eittem
Image Credit: Eittem

It was completed in 2008 as part of renovations and linked the gallery’s 1920s building with a new building also designed by Gehry. Today, it is a contemporary force in an otherwise traditional gallery space, a testament to the successful coexistence of modern and classical design in a singular space. The shape also speaks to Gehry’s design language at large, seemingly in conversation with his earliest works.

Image Credit: The MET Museum
Image Credit: The MET Museum

His 1970s Easy Edges furniture line, for instance, for which he gained national recognition, oddly mirrors his later staircase. A collection of pieces made by layering corrugated cardboard and fiberboard, the furniture achieved fluid, yet sturdy forms.² As his career progressed, he continued to favor complex, curvilinear forms, an inclination well-represented in the design of the AGO staircase. And from a material perspective, Gehry’s fascination with Douglas-fir is evident in his own avant-garde Santa Monica house, where he used the softwood both structurally and decoratively.³


It's no surprise that Gehry and many designers alike favor Douglas fir. Apart from its visually appealing, amber-colored tone, it possesses exceptional qualities for building.⁴ Architecture is innately tied to the selection of materials, and this wood’s significant ability to bend and resistance to warping makes it structurally dependable. For a staircase as distinct as Gehry’s, composed of 22 curved segments, the embrace of Douglas fir is a tactical choice, not simply an aesthetic one: a marriage of material and design.⁵ Despite the complexity of the construction, the final effect is a structure that appears to be effortlessly composed. It is as if, in a stroke of magic, it was lifted from Gehry’s sketchbook and transformed into a whole, unique form for museumgoers to behold.

The result of Gehry’s design is a sculpture that can be truly experienced — physically and emotionally. Admired from a distance, the fusion of natural materials with undulating form creates a calming effect on anyone in its presence. Stumbling across a work of art like this one reminds us that architecture and design at large are always ticking forward, inventing, reimagining, captivating.


Image Credit: Eittem
Image Credit: Eittem
Image Credit: Eittem
Image Credit: Eittem