9. You can Climb a Staircase from Chicago
It can seem at times like the Metropolitan Museum is a sort of architectural Frankenstein, put together by various different wings and pieces of entirely different buildings. Even parts of the collection have become entwined with the building’s architecture. Take these copper-plated iron stairs found between the first and second floors of Engelhard Court.
These stairs were rescued from the 1893 Chicago Stock Exchange building in Illinois. The stairs were removed from the building during its demolition in 1972. The mix of geometric and organic plantlike forms could be found in ornamentation throughout the Louis Sullivan design structure and are typical of his designs.