Alternate Realities : A Colossal Hotel at the Eiffel Tower

Elevation of a 1900 proposal to put a massive hotel at the base of the Eiffel Tower. It was proposed as part of the 1900 Exposition Universelle.

Pictured here is a proposal to put a colossal hotel at the base of the Eiffel Tower. It was proposed as part of the 1900 World’s Fair, called the Exposition Universelle, but it never got built. This elevation is the only drawing we have, which makes sense because most people who see the drawing would dismiss it immediately. The idea of filling up the void under the structure would destroy much of Eiffel’s charm.

Part of the Eiffel Tower’s appeal is her accessibility. You can walk around and under her, and you can ascend up into her. She’s a structure meant to be used. If her base was filled up with buildings, as the proposal suggests, her accessibility would be broken. Her structure would no longer begin at the ground, it would sprout from the roofs of the buildings underneath.

It’s unclear how the project integrated with the tower itself, but it appears to be four different hotel buildings, one on each side. These would be connected by a sprawling ground level below, and a set of bridges connecting to the first tower deck level above. It’s a jumble of buildings and structures, all working to undermine the simple elegance of the tower itself.

The Eiffel Tower was designed as a singular object, a sculpture in-the-round. Clogging up its base with a series of money-making enterprises would destroy the original intent of the design, and thankfully this drawing is as far as this proposal got.

Check out other posts about unbuilt architecture here.