So I was looking through a book on the history of the World's Fair and came across a few old daguerreotypes of the Tour Eiffel, a tower built with the modern methods of the 1889 World's Fair to showcase French industry. Apparently, it attracted quite a bit of controversy in its time, and was dismantled in 1909 following the expiration of its lease. Rather interesting building, if I do say so myself, but I can't imagine seeing modern-day Paris with it still standing. What do you all think? Would Paris look better with a titanic iron tower standing in it's center, or does the Parisian insistence on keeping all monuments simple and classically-based make the city look nicer?
DBWI Eiffel Tower Still Stood
- Thread starter APreston
- Start date
It would definitely look weird, given how Paris looks. Then again, the city probably would have had more modernist architecture if there were already a standing, notable monument in that vein...
Oh, and Alex1guy, here's a picture I found of it from 1889:
There's sort of an elegance to it, I suppose, but... it's more the sort of elegance you expect from a particularly well-designed cell phone tower, not a national monument. Though maybe I'm biased - that Classical and Imperial-style from Paris is the basis for a lot of the monumental work here in Philadelphia I grew up with.
Oh, and Alex1guy, here's a picture I found of it from 1889:
There's sort of an elegance to it, I suppose, but... it's more the sort of elegance you expect from a particularly well-designed cell phone tower, not a national monument. Though maybe I'm biased - that Classical and Imperial-style from Paris is the basis for a lot of the monumental work here in Philadelphia I grew up with.
...Wtf is that? It looks like a giant radio antenna. Did it serve any other purpose except look like a rather ugly blight on the skyline. I also thought you couldn't really built structures of that weight in Paris because of the buried streets and catacombs. Or is this on a reinforced sport or something?
Would it have withstood the Bombardment of Paris in '40? I mean, the Luftwaffe made a point to hit the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame, and what they did at the Wall of the Communards was a travesty. It's a little ASB to say any pre-1940 monuments in the city would have survived unless Paris just capitulated without a fight.
Not this crap again. They did rebuild most of those after the War, after all, even if they're not technically the "original" monuments, and even if they're not exactly as they were pre-1940. If that tower had still stood before the battle, it probably would have been rebuilt in the same way the Arc and Notre Dame were, just in a different vein than the original... though I'm not sure how they would have given the Third Empire twist to, well, that thing.
But they are beautiful monument the arc de triomphe now praise modern french military heroes and resistants. And while Notre Dame is different the original could not be restored the damn huns destroyed it it is noneless a beautiful monument and a memorial to the death of the "Paris sacrifice".
Orville_third
Banned
Cocteau's altar at Notre Dame is nice-and I'm not even Catholic!
I could see this being used in several movies- perhaps as a spot Sean Connery and Audrey Young's characters visit in "The Property of a Lady", or even a scene for a brief date involving Nicole Kidman or Andie MacDowell's characters in "Monte Carlo".
I could see this being used in several movies- perhaps as a spot Sean Connery and Audrey Young's characters visit in "The Property of a Lady", or even a scene for a brief date involving Nicole Kidman or Andie MacDowell's characters in "Monte Carlo".
Kissinger
Banned
Well at least the commander fought, otherwise thered be jokes about cheese eating surrender monkeys.Man the bombing of Paris saw so mutch cultural destruction.
It would definitely look weird, given how Paris looks. Then again, the city probably would have had more modernist architecture if there were already a standing, notable monument in that vein...
Oh, and Alex1guy, here's a picture I found of it from 1889:
There's sort of an elegance to it, I suppose, but... it's more the sort of elegance you expect from a particularly well-designed cell phone tower, not a national monument. Though maybe I'm biased - that Classical and Imperial-style from Paris is the basis for a lot of the monumental work here in Philadelphia I grew up with.
Get an Eyeful of the Eiffel, isn't it awful?
(ducking, dodging and running!
)Lack of aesthetic value aside, I look at that and all I can think about is how cool it would have been if Nikola Tesla could have turned it into a giant death ray during the 20's-30's. Just imagine the range he could have had with a platform that big...hell, it's a bit far-fetched but it might even have saved the city during the war just through its implied intimidation potential.
I wonder if Japan would still have built the Edo Tower. It was one of the first post war French/Japanese mega-projects.
Kind of looks like the world famous Blackpool Tower. I wonder, it the Eiffel Tower was still around today, would the Blackpool Tower had been in Superman II, Rush Hour III, or any one of a dozen other movies.
