The Arcades Project - Operi

marmer .... Each of the twelve thousand metal fittings, each of the two and a half
million rivets, is machined to the millimeter .... On this work site, one hears no
crusel-blow liberating form from stone; here thought reigns over muscle power,
which it transmits via cranes and secure scaffolding." A. G. Meyer, Eisenbauten)
p. 93. 0 Precursors 0 [F4a,2]
"Haussmann was incapable of having what could be called a policy on railroad
stations . ... Despite a directive from the emperor, who justly baptized les gares
'the new gateways of Paris,' the continued development of the railroads surprised
everyone, surpassing all expectations . ... The habit of a certain empiricism was
not easily overcome." Dubech and d'Espezel, Histoire de Paris (Paris, 1926),
p. 419. (F4a,3]
Eiffel Tower. "Greeted at first by a storm of protest, it has remained quite ugly,
though it proved useful for research on wireless telegraphy . ... It has been said
that this world exhibition marked the triumph of iron construction. It would he
truer to say that it marked its bankruptcy." Dubech and d'Espezel, Histoire de
Paris, PI'. 461-462. [F4a,4]
""Around 1878, it was thought that salvation lay in iron construction. Its "yearning
for verticality' (as Salomon Reinach put it), the predominance of empty spaces
over filled spaces, and the lightness of its visible frame raised hopes that a style was
emerging in which the essence of the Gothic genius would be revived Hnd rejuvenated
by a new spirit and new materials. But when engineers erected the Galel'ie
des Machines and the Eiffel Tower in 1889, people despaired of the art of iron.
Perhaps too soon." Dubech and d'Espezel, lIistoire de Paris, p. 4·64. [F4a,5]
B{ranger: "'His sole reproach to the regime of Louis Philippe was that it put the
republic to grow in a hothouse." Franz Diederich,