Eiffel Tower to be updated

[Tiassa]

Two comments out of Seattle:

• "It’s not quite April Fool’s Day, is it?" (Billy Howard)

• "[T]hat makes it the Space Needle!" (Spock)​

Indeed, 'tis not quite April Fool's, and yet it really does seem a joke. Sean Dodson reports for the Guardian:

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 Société d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (Sete) has just announced.

Serero Architects of Paris has won the competition to redesign the structure's public viewing platform and reception areas. The winning design (above), which will be 276 metres (905ft) above the ground, will not require any 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 new platform will use a cantilevered design similar to the way that 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 which attracts 6.9 million visitors a year.

(Dodson)

So, for those who aren't familiar with our local landmark, this is the thing:

A local chuckle: The proposed update to the Eiffel Tower (top, Serero Architects);
the Space Needle (bottom, Nanook's Photo Gallery).​

So before you get all upset that we're chuckling over the Eiffel Tower because we have that thing standing in our city, well, that's kind of the point. We have that thing standing in our city. And we love it, truth told. But come on, the last thing the Eiffel Tower should look like is, well, that thing standing in our city.

Some more from a Slog readers:

Holy crap, that's horrible. Why not turn the Arc d'Triomphe upside down, and fill the Seine with mayonnaise while they're at it? (Fnarf)

• • •​

Awesome! Wouldn't it be cool if the Eiffel Tower looked more like the Space Needle?

And maybe next they can modernize the Pyramids. You know, maybe add some curves, like the EMP. And after that, they could spiff up Big Ben; add some glass, like the new Seattle libarary. Yeah. That'd be cool. (Reverse Polarity)

• • •​

This is so cool. It says Gustave Eiffel designed the tower to support temporary appendages or equipment like this. It's an organic design that is keyed off of the way the original tower is structured, but it shifts to a non-repeating pattern.

Y'll is just afraid to try shit. Gustave Eiffel knew how to live, though. (Elenchos)

(Slog)

____________________

Notes:

Graves, Jen et al. "They Wouldn't. Would They?" Slog. March 25, 2008. http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/03/they_wouldnt_would_they

Dodson, Sean. "New look for Eiffel Tower". Guardian.co.uk. March 24, 2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/24/france.design

See Also:

Serero Architects. http://www.serero.com/index_en.htm

Nanook's Photo Gallery. http://www.eskimo.com/~nanook/gallery/index.php

 

[MacGyver1968]

What's next?....Dressin' "Big Tex" like a metrosexual?

 

[Asguard]

i have to agree with MacGyver1968

Actually his signiture is probably quite apropriate for this case
"Fixin' shit that ain't broke"

 

[cosmictraveler]

So they are going to add MORE weight to the top of the structure to allow for more people who weigh even more to visit the top. The structure was designed to carry a certain load with its structure the way it is and that has been standing for over 100 years. That steel isn't getting any stronger and I'd bet that the whole structure might need to be upgraded in order to withstand the increase pressure that expansion will produce. I just hope that they have taken into account the entire load on the weakest points to be certain it will actually hold the load!

 

[USS Exeter]

So they are going to add MORE weight to the top of the structure to allow for more people who weigh even more to visit the top. The structure was designed to carry a certain load with its structure the way it is and that has been standing for over 100 years. That steel isn't getting any stronger and I'd bet that the whole structure might need to be upgraded in order to withstand the increase pressure that expansion will produce. I just hope that they have taken into account the entire load on the weakest points to be certain it will actually hold the load!

Exacly! That sleek look that the Eiffel tower once had is about to be gone! Just for the sake of carrying more fat American tourists on the top. They should put a weight limit for the viewing area and just leave it be! I'm glad that structure is only temporary!

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

So they are going to add MORE weight to the top of the structure to allow for more people who weigh even more to visit the top. The structure was designed to carry a certain load with its structure the way it is and that has been standing for over 100 years. That steel isn't getting any stronger and I'd bet that the whole structure might need to be upgraded in order to withstand the increase pressure that expansion will produce. I just hope that they have taken into account the entire load on the weakest points to be certain it will actually hold the load!

When that bridge collapsed in Minnesota I asked a civil engineer why some of our much older bridges weren't in desperate need of repair. He said the reason is that when those bridges were built the engineers didn't have the precise data on material strength that they do today, so to be safe they vastly overengineered everything. Their managers didn't know any better so they couldn't second-guess them to cut costs. He said those bridges could carry twice the load they carry today, much less what they were designed for. Today the engineers and their managers know exactly how much material to use in order to exactly fulfill the specifications and maximize profit, so the things become unreliable exactly when they say they will. I'm sure the Eiffel Tower is strong enough to use as the base for a space elevator.

 

[S.A.M.]

That money could find a lot of better use elsewhere.

 

[Tiassa]

Big Tex is already gay; red wine and Herbie Hancock

What's next?....Dressin' "Big Tex" like a metrosexual?

Um ..., well, he already looks gay enough.

I suppose the same could be said for the Eiffel Tower, too. But, y'know ... er ... um ... yeah.

• • •​

It's not quite a rock and a hard place, but the thing is that I have a hard time wishing this project ill. Not because I think it looks good, or is a good idea, but rather because about the only thing to vindicate people's concerns at this point would be if the project killed people.

It's like drinking red wine out of flutes. Sure, it's stylish, but it actually reduces one's ability to experience the wine.

Next up ... snap-on day-glo panels for Chichen Itza. Because, well, you know ... if it looks classic, it looks old and stuffy and out of date. Any testament to the longevity of the human species should be rendered devoid of timeless context: it needs to be hip; it needs to be now; it needs to have it; it needs to be in your face; it needs to be ... cool.

I was going to draw some sort of jazz metaphor here, but it utterly failed me. Anyway, since I managed to pull up the links before I realized how badly it was going to go, enjoy:

• Herbie Hancock, "Cantaloop Island" (classic)
• Herbie Hancock, "Cantaloop Island" (contemporary)
• Us3, "Cantaloop" (cover)​

 

[Tiassa]

Or maybe not ....

Update: That's negative, repeat, negative on tower redesign

To her credit, Jen Graves was kind enough to bring us the latest. Don't bother clicking the link unless you want to comment at Slog. The entry only points to this:

David Serero, principal of Serero Architects, said in a telephone interview that his firm’s proposal was merely a spontaneous design it had submitted to the Eiffel Tower management group in view of the tower’s approaching 120th anniversary and, he said, was neither a response to a design competition nor solicited by the tower’s management.

The Guardian’s Web site reported Monday that the Eiffel Tower’s management group, the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, had approved a temporary restructuring of the observation platform, which would alter the tower’s overall shape. After the report was picked up by other news organizations, the management group said that it had never solicited a redesign and that it envisaged no changes to the tower’s appearance.

(Katz)

That's right, the whole thing is apparently the result of overzealous reporters who got the wrong idea when someone at an architecture firm doodled some ideas and then posted them on the company website alongside other projects the firm actually is undertaking.

Or something like that.

(Damn it ... I finally put a time limit on a poll and the story burns out over a hundred days early.)
____________________

Notes:

Katz, Basil. "France: No Eiffel Redesign Planned, Says Architect Who Made Proposal". New York Times. March 27, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/world/europe/27briefs-NOEIFFELREDE_BRF.html

See Also:

Graves, Jen. "No, In Fact, They Wouldn’t". Slog. March 27, 2008. http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/03/no_in_fact_they_wouldnt

 

[Pandaemoni]

The irony here being that many people said very similar things about the Eiffel Tower itself when it was being built. It was going to be what a terrible eyesore blighting the Paris skyline and, the naysayers predicted, it would lose money hand over fist.

Do I think that little addition would somehow blight the Eiffel Tower? No, not really. It is displeasing to the that part of me that fears change and hates that noise the kids today call music, but things change anyway and usually for the better. The big question is whether the change matches the design of the existing tower, on an aesthetic level, and I did not see that this proposal seemed to "not fit" the overall design.

 

[Orleander]

Why would they do that? It's like painting a hat on Mona Lisa.

 

[hypewaders]

Bon sang! Quelle abomination! N'est rien de sacré?

 

[USS Exeter]

That money could find a lot of better use elsewhere.

Very true.