The Eiffel Tower is an iron tower built March 31, 1889 (hoisting the flag to the top) for the Universal Exhibition in celebration of the French Revolution on the Champ de Mars beside the Seine River in Paris. The tower has become a global icon of France and is one of the most recognizable structures in the world.

Now, the Société d’exploitation de la Tour Eiffel has just announced that the tapering signature of the Eiffel Tower is to be reshaped, altering the skyline of Paris, in time for the structure’s 120th anniversary next year. Serero Architects of Paris have won the open competition to redesign the structure’s public viewing platform and reception areas as a celebration of the 120th birthday of Gustave Eiffel’s original creation. Aiming to “create a temporary horizontal extension of the third floor of the tower in order to increase the quality of the access of the public as well as experiencing the fantastic 360 degrees sight of Paris.”, the designers project will extend the top floor plate of the tower by grafting a high performance carbon Kevlar structure on it. The winning design (above), which will be 276 metres (905ft) above the ground, will not require any permanent modification of the existing structuref. It will double the capacity of the public viewing area on the tower’s top floor.

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