The 1889 Paris landmark that became a monumental iron sculpture designed by Gustave Eiffel’s company is the Eiffel Tower.
The tower was built as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a world’s fair celebrating the centenary of the French Revolution. Gustave Eiffel’s engineering company designed and constructed it, working from plans associated with engineers Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier and architect Stephen Sauvestre.
Completed in 1889, the tower used wrought iron latticework rather than stone or cast bronze. Its unusual appearance drew criticism from some Parisian artists and writers before construction, yet it became an immediate engineering and cultural landmark.
The Eiffel Tower was initially intended to be temporary, but its usefulness for communications helped preserve it. It has been repainted many times and remains one of the most recognizable structures in the world, although it is often described more narrowly as architecture rather than conventional figurative sculpture.