Phare du Monde

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, 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.

References

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

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