linguistic:paraphrasing, linguistic:voice_change, structural:expansion, quality:corruption
Stairs in art and architecture

Religious shrines and memorial structures are often approached via stairs, sometimes numbering hundreds or thousands of steps. Many Neoclassical buildings feature prominent wide stairs ascending to an elevated platform or plinth where the main entrance is located. In recent years, increasing concerns about accessibility have encouraged architects to retrofit discreet lower-level public entrances or elevators to ease wheelchair access.

Large open-well helical stairs have been used as a central feature in public buildings from the Renaissance until modern times. A 21st-century version is the helical glass-enclosed, glass-treaded stairways at the center of several flagship Apple Stores.

Vessel is an artistic structure and visitor attraction which was built as part of the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project in Manhattan, New York City. Built to plans by the British designer Thomas Heatherwick, the elaborate honeycomb -like structure rises 16 stories and consists of 154 flights of stairs, 2,500 steps, and 80 landings for visitors to explore.

Stairs may also be a fanciful physical construct such as the "stairs that go nowhere" located at the Winchester Mystery House. The Penrose stairs, devised by Lionel and Roger Penrose, are a famous impossible object. The image distorts perspective in such a manner that the stairs appear to be never-ending, a physical impossibility. The image was adopted by M. C. Escher in his iconic lithograph Ascending and Descending.