Eiffel Tower's "Face-Lift"
John Hill
8. d’octubre 2014
Photo: © E.Livinec - SETE, courtesy of Tour Eiffel
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo recently inaugurated the 19th century icon's new first floor, which includes a glass floor 57 meters (187 feet) above the pavement.
Vertiginous glass walkways are becoming a 21st century means of luring even more tourists to well-known places, as evidenced by The Ledge at the top of Willis Tower in Chicago, the horseshoe-shaped Grand Canyon Skywalk in Arizona, and the incorporation of a circular glass-floor observatory in the cantilevered prow of OMA's CCTV Headquarters in Beijing. In the case of the Eiffel Tower's glass floor, it is one part of a first-floor redevelopment that also includes rebuilt reception and conference rooms as part of its event space, rebuilt visitor services, and a "museographic path." Moatti – Rivière are the architects responsible for the face-lift whose diagonals and transparency were inspired by Gustave Eiffel's curved and tapered structure.