I had a wealthy client some years back that had taken a very good video in Croatia of a railing he admired. From that video I was able to recreate the railing (it's probably a French design from about 200 years ago),for his palatial estate being built in Alexander Valley,the heart of Wine Country. I had completed 300 ft. on 5 huge exterior balconies when I was called to meet with the owner and the contractor. They showed me another design with straight pickets and a very linear and boxy configuration and asked me if I could make it. I said ,of course I could make it ,but I won't. It's ugly and does not fit the buildings style and you both know it. Sometimes my phenomenal arrogance tends to get to the heart of a matter quickly. They explained that if they depended on the architect to design this feature it would take 3 months. I told them I'd have a design for them Monday morning (this being Friday afternoon). But they would have to get some engineer to sign off on it...They were both skeptical,but the owner said he'd give me just enough rope to hang myself.
This is the design I developed over the weekend. The railing is a SEPARATE piece and bolts on after the platform is installed. the platform itself has THROUGH BOLTS going directly through the vertical supporting members of the building,(8X8's). The separate sections are easier to handle and can be removed for powder coating every 7 years or so...If I'd had more time I'd have been able to match the structural gussets beneath the platform and forge them into mellifluous curves as well. Still this worked nicely. There are two of these bolt on balconies on either side of the 10,000sq.ft. building...