Received this 3D rendering of the stairs to the second floor yesterday from the 'stair guy' . Made from steel with wood treads, they will rise from the northeastern corner of the kitchen common area to the second floor.  There is another set of stairs that descend from the first floor to the garden level that are directly below these and in the same configuration, but they are a more standard, wood, enclosed kind of 'typical' staircase. As seen here in the rendering, the opening of the floor in the stairwell area is fairly large - it is done this way to promote an open feeling as well as to allow for a skylight in the roof of the building to cast light down through this shaft into the kitchen area.  It should be a pretty cool feature of this room.