Engineer tackles challenge with ‘floating’ stairs

Andrzej Sitarski loves a challenge, finding new ways to solve problems, and the challenge a friend posed to him about 20 years ago has shaped his life ever since.

Sitarski’s friend, a Town of Grafton resident, asked him to build a staircase from his home atop the Lake Michigan bluff to the beach below that would last.

The result was a “floating” staircase that zig-zags down the bluff and is supported via cables anchored atop the hillside.

The pressure the staircase places against the bluff also helps support the hillside, Sitarski said.

“I had the idea a long time ago. It just had to be developed,” Sitarski said, noting it came from the idea of pulling a sled up a hill. “Physical strength is applied toward the bluff, not against it.”

Now, bluff staircases are his vocation. The Town of Grafton resident is the owner of About Nature, which designs, builds and maintains bluff staircases around the country — including the one at Virmond Park in Mequon.

The company was also recently contracted to design a staircase at Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge Nature Preserve in Port Washington.

“I love challenges and finding different ways to meet them,” Sitarski said. “Whatever I was doing in the past, I always tried to come up with solutions that were maybe different from the standard and then follow the concept.”

For people who question whether a challenge can be met, Sitarski has a simple answer.

“I always tell people, humans built pyramids so there is no challenge we can’t meet.”

Sitarski, who grew up in Poland, has spent a lifetime meeting challenges.

He came to the United States in 1977 and built a career as an electrical engineer.

He initially worked in New York, then was hired by Rockwell in Chicago, where he worked on large building projects, many of them converting structures from steam and hot-water heat to electrical heat.

“It sounds kind of crazy nowadays,” Sitarski said of the work.

Over time he got into construction, eventually serving as a general contractor.

And then came his friend’s question about building a bluff staircase.

Sitarski designs and builds stairways on “skis” that are supported by galvanized ropes, he said.

Unlike traditional staircases, which are anchored into the side of the bluff and put a strain on the hillside, his staircases are supported by the galvanized ropes, which follow the line of the stairs and at the top fan out to create a Y-shape. The ropes are anchored into the top of the bluff at least 75 feet from the edge of the hillside.

There are also supporting lines off the landings in the staircase.

All this allows the staircase to press against the side of the bluff, creating stability, Sitarski said.

“The one thing we can’t tell customers is we’re going to preserve the bluff,” he said. “But we can slow it down (by adding stability).

“Areas where the stairs are built are more stable than the areas on either side of them.”

Sitarski’s company is essentially a one-man show. He contracts with property owners to design bluff staircases personalized to their property.

“Each one is different,” he said, adding that among the chief factors to be considered are topography and the different soils and rocks found on a parcel. The most important thing, he added, is to pick the right spot for the staircase.

“There are areas more susceptible to collapse,” he said, and those must be avoided.

After the design is completed, the property owner often hires Sitarski to build the structure.

“I design and offer the customer the idea,” he said. “They become the general contractor.”

He has a network of subcontractors he uses to construct the stairways, some of whom he’s worked with for decades.

Sitarski’s staircases use a switchback design with multiple landings, each of which is individually connected to the main support line.

Every section, he said, is individually adjusted, and if erosion takes place after a stairway is built, they can be tweaked afterward to maintain stability.

And once the stairs are built, a property owner can hire Sitarski to maintain the stairway or they can hire a handyman.

“Everything is built above ground, so it’s easy to replace something if needed,” he said.

Many staircases also have a retractable section at the end so in winter ice doesn’t build up and destroy the steps.

The stairs can be made of a variety of materials, but Sitarski prefers pressure treated lumber.

“As it ages, it blends in,” he said.

And, he said, he strives to use American-made products in his staircases.

“Just looking at it, there’s a huge difference in quality (from foreign made products),” he said.

Sitarski has designed and built staircases on public and private properties from coast to coast for more than 2,000 customers.

And, he said, his customers have become his friends.

“You get immense rewards from the customers,” he said. “I love this. I like what I’m doing — how can you not love your baby?