Fire Escapes

I never noticed before, but on the East Coast, the stairs on the bottom landing of a fire escape are some scissor-like mechanism that cranks down to the ground. On the West Coast, the bottom ladder is counterweighted, so that when you step on it, it descends into position. You learn a lot of trivia by spending gobs of time drawing and photographing fire escapes, but my real fascination was with the way light and shadow interact with the shapes and angles of the structure. While observing, i also noticed that they were not only escapes, but for many they were an extra space to sit, read, exercise or chat, an added room with a public view.