Yikes, yet another set of regulations for stairs! There are already soo many, and the idea of mandating reduced riser height in the stair has serious implications for many buildings with confined areas as this means more treads will be required and thus more overall area taken out of the building for stairs. I am, however, a big fan of using stairs, but the reality of the fire codes and the function of the code necessitates fire rated walls and doors. Making the interior of the stair nicer would be great (owner would have to pay extra) and locating the stair more conveniently is also good - but codes do have impact on that decision as well as fire stairs have to exit the building directly at the base, etc.