Eiffel Tower- Altered!

[el-capitano]

THE elegant, tapering signature of the Eiffel Tower is to be reshaped, altering the skyline of Paris, in time for the structure's 120th anniversary next year.

The Societe d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE) has announced that Serero Architects of Paris has won a competition to redesign the structure's public viewing platform and reception areas. The winning design, which will be 276 metres above the ground, will not require permanent modification of the existing structure. It will double the capacity of the public viewing area on the tower's top floor.

The new platform will be bolted onto the tower using a web of Kevlar, an extremely strong and lightweight carbon fibre used in the construction of racing cars and body armour. The platform will use a cantilevered design similar to the way an aircraft's wings are attached to the fuselage.

The design is already causing controversy, with critics questioning the wisdom of tinkering with the famous silhouette and spending money on upgrading a tourist attraction that attracts 6.9 million visitors a year.

A spokesman for SETE explained in a statement that the plan to restructure the top of the tower was intended to increase the quality of access. Average waiting times for the tower's lifts now run at more than an hour during peak periods.


http://www.smh.com.au/news/news/monumental-change-planned-for-eiffel-tower/2008/03/24/1206207056438.html

[el-capitano]

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/rgw_eiffel_narrowweb__300x433,4.jpg

[el-capitano]

Well thats going to turn heads.

From some other images I've seen, the extra web pieces that extend past the actual viewing platform look like they will impede anyone's view out or down from the platform which sort of detracts from the whole point of going to the top?

Crazy shit! ;)

[Bluto11]

looks awful

[Matt in the Hat]

I love it.

[Daniel from Montréal]

looks awful

I love it.

Ah, I can already hear the Parisians...

[ultra_ultra redded]

Aweful!

[guignol]

aesthetically? vile. i would rather see the thing torn down than look like that.

technically? impossible. oh, not to put up. but the wind it catches would put extreme stress on a 120 year old structure that needed very fine calculations when it was built. fyi, serero is not an engineering firm. they're blowing this idea out of their nether regions.

administratively? just getting all the necessary green lights to do this would take at least... another 120 years.

[usasoccerhooligan]

can't say that i'm a big fan by any means. why not just leave le Tour Eiffel alone with its signature design? let alone the potential engineering issues which i would hope that they would take a loooooottttt of time to address. it'd be a shame to see the Eiffel Tower look like a palm tree in a hurricane.

[TeamUSA]

The new design looks awful, and this from a non Parisian too.

[guignol]

the eiffel tower didn't always get unanimous praise: guy de maupassant used to have lunch there every day... "because it's the only place in town you can't see the eyesore from".

but today, and i'm no parisian either, it's hard to think of another monument as majestic, save perhaps the pyramids at giza. whether you first see it going down the river or coming out of the champ de mars station, it hits you in a way that even the empire state building can't.

[januk]

I don't like!:(

[guignol]

don't worry, it's little more than a joke, a minor design outfit coming up with a publicity stunt. there is no engineering, no official request and no reality behind these images.