The Eiffel Tower: Precursor to the 21st C. Public Park

Abstract

As a landscape architect, I am investigating the three-dimensional nature of the Eiffel Tower; as a symbol of Paris, the Tower is both an infrastructural wonder and a three-dimensional public park. It is a landscape of layers and depth: providing framed views of the city on the ground, orienting one from miles away in all directions, elevating one far above the rooftops of Paris, and granting a bird’s eye view of the city. In this way, The Eiffel Tower becomes a precursor to our contemporary concept of the public park, one which challenges the idea of the ground plane and proposes a new concept of a secondary landscape elevated above the city streets. I will use Bernard Tschumi’s Parc de la Villette in Paris and the High Line in New York City as vehicles through which to study the Eiffel Tower’s role within landscape design’s general field and, more specifically, the development of the urban park. I conclude by positing that every city needs a park like the Eiffel Tower. With urban land at a premium, we should continue to look for opportunities to elevate the public park above the city landscape. By extruding the urban infrastructure up and giving people a sense of place and orientation, public venues provide places in which to gather and experience the city in more personal and dynamic ways.