The overhaul of the Eiffel Tower’s first floor, which includes a new glass floor, is to be unveiled this afternoon, Art Daily reports. The first floor is currently the most spacious, but the least visited storey of the Parisian landmark.
The €30 million ($37.5 million) reconstruction, by French architecture studio Moatti-Rivière, has transformed the formerly lackluster space into an exciting destination. The glass floor will allow visitors a vertiginous view 57 meters below, whilst glass safety barriers offer panoramic vistas of the French capital. Operators hope that the addition of a museum, restaurants, shops, and event spaces will encourage tourists to spend more time on the first floor.
The new buildings have been fitted with sustainable technology such as windmills and solar panels to produce part of the energy used by the tower, low energy LED lighting, and toilets that run partly on rainwater. The structure has also been made fully accessible for disabled visitors.
Talking about the first construction work on the iconic landmark in over 30 years Jean-Bernard Bros of SETE, the operator of the Eiffel Tower said: “We wanted to set an example.”
The Eiffel Tower, which was constructed in 1889 for the World’s Fair, attracts seven million visitors a year, 85% of which are foreign tourists.
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