Every year 30 million people visit the Eiffel Tower, situated at the heart of Paris. Seven million choose to ascend the monument for soaring views over the city. One of the most iconic landmarks in the world, the site is a victim of its popularity. Fundamental issues like over-crowding, impaired accessibility, lack of services, and congested gardens have impacted the experience of the Eiffel Tower and its surroundings.gh street that runs from the Zone 1 Battersea Power Station Underground station to the Grade II* listed landmark.
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Site Tour Eiffel
Public Landscape Architecture (Built)
Firm
Gustafson Porter + Bowman
Architect/Designer
Eduardo Carranza
Design Team
Gustafson Porter + Bowman – Lead Consultant and Landscape Architect, ALP – Local Landscape Architect, Ma-Geo – Civil engineer, Planete Management – Construction management, Sathy – Urban Design, Devillers et Associés-Urban planning, Chartier Corbasson – Architect, Atelier Monchecourt – Historical architect, Bollinger + Grohmann – Structural engineer, INEX – Service engineer, Vpeas – Cost consultant, Client – City of Paris, Project Management – Spl PariSeine
Location
Paris, France
Country
United Kingdom
Photographer/Copyright
©MIR, Lotoarchilab, Hervé Piraud
In May 2018, The City of Paris shortlisted Gustafson Porter + Bowman – alongside three other teams from 42 entries – to reimagine the landscape of the Eiffel Tower. This major international competition sought designs that would respond to the brief – discover, approach, visit – and deliver a landscape that aligns with the City’s vision for a resilient, inclusive and environmentally-oriented future.
Gustafson Porter + Bowman’s ‘OnE’ design proposes a unified central axis that celebrates the Eiffel Tower at the central point between the Palais de Chaillot at the Place du Trocadéro and the École Militaire at the Place Joffre. This backbone creates a readable landscape of regreened spaces: an amphitheatre at the Trocadéro, extended public space at the Varsovie Fountains, the reincarnation of Pont d’Iéna as a green bridge, the creation of two new squares at either end of the bridge, a planted landscape beneath the Eiffel Tower and raised lawns for the Champ de Mars.
Finding and staging new views of the tower, points of interest are created from which to enjoy the site. The central axis ‘landscape of power ‘serves to focus the sense of perspective of the Tower from both ends of the site. Overlaying this is a second landscape, one that recalls the French ‘picturesque’ and its history of gardens as places of artistic experimentation and an increase in biodiversity. The human scale is prioritised, so that places for pleasure and pause become invested with their own identity.
Completed in March 2024, the historic landscape around the Fontaine de Varsovie reinforces the architectural heritage for visitors. Over 4000m2 of sloped lawns either side of the fountain have been re-turfed and new linear limestone benches at the top and bottom of the slope provide seating and protect the historic lawns. The pedestrian promenades have been resurfaced and the adjacent terraces have been planted with over 15,000 new shrubs and perennials. 26 new cherry trees have been planted either side of the fountain reinforcing the perspective of the Eiffel Tower. New lighting masts with cast glass globes have been fitted with sustainable LED sources.
The completion of this initial sector marks the first phase of the wider landscape project that will continue after the Paris Olympics in the autumn of 2024. The next stages to re-green the Eiffel Tower Site, enhance biodiversity and reduce pollution, will include the pedestrianisation of the Place de Varsovie and the Pont d’Iéna, together with the reduction of traffic lanes and the addition of shrub and perennial planting along the Quai Branly.