07th Apr 2008
Out of his frikkin’ mind…
From Modern Mechanix: M. Freyssinet designed the Phare du Monde for the 1937 Paris Exhibition.
I’ve driven up curvy windy roads around the sides of mountains, and, being afraid of heights, I found it to be one of the most traumatic experiences in my life. (It was better going down, when we weren’t DIRECTLY NEXT TO A HUGE DROP. Errrrgh. I need to take my laptop downstairs now.) I can’t imagine driving in circles up something twice as tall as the Empire State Building. I can’t imagine driving in circles up something half as tall as the Empire State Building. I have nightmares about combination lighthouse-parking garages that look a lot like this.
I also love the top-floor garage. Keep in mind we’re talking about cars from the 1930’s, which were about twenty tons of solid steel each (well, the American cars were — I’m not positive about European models prior to World War II). So storing 500 cars would get a little heavy… However, Eugène Freyssinet apparently did a lot with pre-stressed concrete and wasn’t a complete crackpot, so maybe this design could have worked.
Or, maybe this was Eugène’s cousin, Pierre Freyssinet, who architecture specialized in pure crazy. The Modern Mechanix article isn’t specific 
It just occurred to me that at the ridiculous height of half a mile and a steep 10 percent grade on the road, the drive to the top would be more than four miles. Modern cars in first gear might take half an hour to get up to the top!