Phare_du_Monde

Phare du Monde

Phare du Monde

Paris, France observation tower which was never built

Phare du Monde ("Lighthouse of the world") was an observation tower planned for the 1937 World Fair in Paris, France. The Phare du Monde, advertised as a "Pleasure Tower Half Mile High"[1] was designed by Eugène Freyssinet, and was to be a 701-metre (2,300 feet) tall concrete tower with a light beacon and a restaurant on the top. A spiralling road on the outside of the tower shaft was to be built for driving access to a height of 1,640 feet (500 m), to a parking garage for 500 cars.[2] This focus on the car in such an eye-catching construction has been seen as proof of the car (by 1939) having become "the primary force in determining the appearance of the ordinary landscape of cities."[3] The costs were estimated to have been $2.5 million;[4] it was never built.

Quick Facts Lighthouse of the world, General information ...

References

  1. [1]
    "Pleasure Tower Half Mile High". Architectural Record: 41. 1934.
  2. [2]
    Tauranac, John (1997). The Empire State Building: the making of a landmark. MacMillan. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-312-14824-9.
  3. [3]
    Relph, E.C. (1987). The modern urban landscape. JHU Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-8018-3560-5.
  4. [4]
    "Fiction: Les urbanistes des années 30 imaginaient nos villes pousser à la verticale de façon illimitée". Le Matin. 2001-12-30. Archived from the original on 2012-02-19. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Phare_du_Monde, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.