Blog #6 - Eiffel Tower

While studying historic preservation, I have been very interested in the reasons why people feel sites should be preserved. It's amazing how different people can have diametrically opposed opinions on whether or not the same structure should stay or go. I wanted to investigate an example of historic preservation that stands as an example of a great success despite meeting opposition. The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France struck me as just such an example. When the Tower was constructed it was both loved and reviled by different groups. It wasn't even meant to be a permanent structure, but through various efforts and good fortune it has been made to last until this day, and is now internationally beloved and recognized as an icon of Paris.

The aim of researching the story of the Eiffel Tower is to find out how a structure with such an uncertain future wound up being preserved. I intend to find out who Gustave Eiffel was and why he was chosen to design the tower. Why was the tower being built in the first place? What is it made of? How was the design of the tower new and different? When it was built, who didn't like it, and why? How did Eiffel defend it? How did it come to be preserved? What practical or economic uses has it served? What kind of maintenance needs to be done to keep it standing? From all these questions I intend to illuminate the "why" of preservation, and perhaps shed some light on why it might be important to preserve buildings that may not be very well liked today, but could be important in the future.