The Eiffel Tower was famously considered an eyesore, when it opened in 1889. Parisians mourned that their city had been scarred by this industrial-era metal behemoth.
With ornate marvels such as the Empire State and Chrysler buildings nearby, the joke went that New York was now a city of beautiful buildings, and the two boxes they came in. The Eiffel would of course go on to become a symbol of love, elegance, and Paris itself. The Twin Towers would come to represent the heart of modernity. In this way, our view of iconic structures shifts and alters over time, as tastes change and ideas of beauty and belonging are reframed. This year, another hotly debated monument, Barcelona’s La Sagrada Familia, was finally officially inaugurated. What has made it controversial? What other modern-era architectural marvels share its fate? Take a look. * A CROSS TO BEAR: LA SAGRADA FAMILIA, BARCELONA Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi’s masterpiece, one of Spain’s most iconic tourist attractions, finally reached its maximum height this year. It was officially inaugurated by Pope Leo XIV in June. First, it is entirely the wrong colour, its white marble clashing crudely with the elegant honey-coloured travertine of the ancient forum and colosseum nearby. Worse still, an entire slope of Capitoline Hill was cleared in order to accommodate it, with ruins including Pope Paul III’s 16th-century villa and fortification tower razed. To make matters worse, the monument then played a starring role in Benito Mussolini’s Fascist propaganda, representing for him the ideal, monolithic, all-powerful State. Jutting into the famous (and legally protected) view of St Paul’s Cathedral from Parliament Hill, it does clash with every other structure in a corridor where elegant stone buildings in a creamy white hue tend to date to the 1600s. Each facet resembles a glass shard, gently sloping towards the top. Local residents complain they aren’t even welcome to visit. ZHA obliged by designing a four-storey addition on top.
When New York’s Twin Towers were completed in 1973, they were derided for their lack of architectural detail. After the 2001 terror attacks, they would be immortalised in a monument to grief that sends water plunging into the ground, in the form of two inverted fountains. Completed in 1935, the monument to Italian king Victor Emmanuel II (1820-1878) took 50 years to build. Today, the structure houses a museum. * GLOOM WITH A VIEW: THE SHARD, LONDON This is easily London’s most-hated building, and has been since it opened in 2012. Located in Southwark, a gentrifying neighbourhood once known for council housing and warehouses, the 95-storey tower of offices, restaurants, a hotel and homes has strict dress codes, and a viewing platform that is only open to those with a ticket. * A BOW FULL OF KNOTS: PORT HOUSE, ANTWERP When Zaha Hadid Architects was commissioned to design an addition to Antwerp’s port house, there was only one demand: that the existing building, a disused fire station, be preserved. Many feel the historic 1911 fire station hasn’t been preserved, in spirit, so much as reduced to a pedestal for the glittering glass-and-steel structure. It doesn’t help that the addition, completed in 2016, cost €63 million in taxpayer money to build.
Because he said it was the only place left from where he couldn’t see the hideous thing, the writer Guy de Maupassant famously ate lunch at one of the tower restaurants as often as he could (some accounts say every day),.
Locals refer to this massive, ornate marble memorial — think, rearing horses, shields of armour, colonnaded terraces — with mocking nicknames such as “false teeth” (its Corinthian columns are said to resemble dentures) and “wedding cake” (for its fussy embellishment). There are two big problems with the structure, according to residents of Rome. When the final plans were unveiled, the heritage-management organisation English Heritage said it would be like “a spike through the heart of historic London”. Architect Renzo Piano has said he was inspired by the railway lines and masts of sailing ships. The extension, likened by ZHA to a “diamond bow”, was instantly reviled. Residents said it contrasted brutally with the low-rise brick-stone-and-slate structures of the neighbourhood.
La Sagrada Familia has been under construction for 144 years, but will take at least five more years to complete. In 2019, the trust that runs the cathedral agreed to pay $41 million to the city government, in back fines for the decades of unsanctioned building work. An earthquake in 1977 gave Ceausescu the idea for the palace. He took over a damaged quarter of the city, razed the residential and commercial buildings that still stood, and began to erect a marble palace so vast and opulent, its 1,100 rooms hold a total of 3,500 tonnes of crystal. Ceausescu was captured, tried by military tribunal and executed by firing squad in 1989. Work was completed in 1997, and it serves as the seat of the country’s democratic government. Weighing about 4.1 million tonnes, studies show it is sinking by about 6 mm a year. * STONE THE ENTIRELY WRONG COLOUR: VITTORIO EMANUELE II MONUMENT, ROME
For decades, construction here proceeded with no building permits (the original plans were submitted in the 1880s, lost in a bureaucratic muddle, and only recently officially approved). And Barcelona hasn’t always taken kindly to the disruption. The project is funded by private donations and, more recently, ticket sales. But protests have erupted from time to time over the expense and man-hours dedicated to organising this part of Barcelona around this massive construction site. There has also been agitation over the exceptions granted to the site itself. For all those years, standard city construction taxes were not levied. There are now concerns that the extravagant entrance, the as-yet-unfinished Glory Facade, with a staircase that stretches across the street outside, will cause disruptions to nearby homes. By some estimates, the residents of at least one residential building may need to be rehoused in order to make way for it. How much more will it take, and when will it be done, residents are still asking. * A DICTATOR’S STAMP: PALACE OF PARLIAMENT, BUCHAREST This large hilltop compound was commissioned by totalitarian ruler Nicolae Ceausescu, who headed a dictatorial police state in Romania from the 1960s to the 1980s. Then the revolution came. In the wake of this, there were calls to turn his palace into the world’s largest shopping mall or largest casino. There were also calls to demolish it. In the end, a more practical option prevailed. Meanwhile, it is unclear how long it will stand.
Locals still refer to the structure as the “white elephant”.
