Project Overview & Background
Most glass railings are specified in stainless or black. This Beverly Hills entry called for brass, and specifically for unlacquered brass — the kind that darkens and develops a patina with handling rather than staying uniformly bright.
That is a maintenance conversation before it is a design one, and we had it up front. Lacquered brass looks identical on day one and stays that way, but when the lacquer eventually fails it does so in patches and the only fix is stripping the whole run. Unlacquered brass changes from the first week and never needs refinishing. The homeowners wanted the patina, so unlacquered was correct — but that decision is much more expensive to reverse than to make.
Structural Challenge:
The entry balustrade turns through two obtuse angles rather than a simple straight run. Brass clamps are cast in fixed orientations, so the panel layout had to be set out so every clamp landed square to its panel, which drove the panel widths rather than the other way round.
Engineered Solution:
Unlacquered brass clamps and top rail over tempered panels, with panel widths set out from the clamp geometry so every fixing sits square.
It already looks better than the day it went in, which was the whole idea.
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