ALEXANDRE GUSTAVE EIFFEL
December 15, 1832-December 27, 1923
THE EIFFEL TOWER, PARIS, FRANCE
GUSTAVE EIFFEL'S MASTERPIECE
COMPLETED 1889
Kid's Eye View
PHOTOGRAPHED SEVENTY YEARS LATER
Gustave Eiffel, an engineer and "constructor," specialized in metallic structures. He designed the iron skeleton frame for the Statue of Liberty for the 1876 U.S. Centennial Exposition (see here and here). He built the Eiffel Tower -- the tallest structure in the world at the time -- for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris -- 1889 being the centenary of the French Revolution. Eiffel's work also seems to have been revolutionary; he is said to have been "one of the first engineers to recognize the importance of wind forces on tall structures. He designed the surface of his Tower to be so minimal that the wind has virtually nothing to grab onto."
Now a French firm, Ginger, wants to turn the Eiffel Tower into a "green jungle" or a "something akin to a very tall, and growing, Christmas tree" -- the world's largest tree. It would be covered by six hundred thousand plants -- and all the infrastructure needed to keep them growing.
There is a incredible three-part visualization of what the Eiffel Tower would come to look like if the scheme went through, here. The proposal's authors are touting this as a visionary ecological project. See for yourselves.
JUVENILIA
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