The most dramatic way to lighten a balustrade is to make it disappear altogether. That is what I.M. Pei did at the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., (1978), in what must be one of the most imitated balustrades of recent times. Sheets of thick, tempered glass, recessed into the floor, replace the stanchions and rails. A cap of round, stainless-steel tubing forms the handrail. As throughout Pei's buildings, construction is concealed rather than revealed, hardware is minimized, simple elegance is stressed, and the whole thing also happens to function well—as long as someone regularly cleans children's fingerprints off the glass.