All the buildings were once new. And all the design projects were once innovative. But some of the projects, as well as buildings for which they were built were so shocking that in a society inflamed real scandal. It took time to dust settled, the buildings fit into the landscape, and the scandalous projects were considered classics. So, ten famous buildings, the construction of which has provoked a scandal in society.

10. George Washington Memorial

Washington, United States

Washington Monument - a monument to the first president George Washington, its construction scheduled to begin shortly after the death of Washington in 1799 .  But because of the war of 1812 and the lack of funds the construction of the monument had to be postponed .  In 1833, to raise funds and donations was organized by the National Society of Washington Monument (Washington National Monument Society) .  By the mid-thirties, the company has collected about 30 thousand dollars, and has announced a competition to design the memorial .  The winner of the contest turned out to be the architect Robert Mills Charleston .  As he proposed to erect a monument obelisk topped by a statue of Washington .  Bottom Mills was going to surround an obelisk circular colonnade, which was decorated with statues of Washington standing in a chariot .  Inside the colonnade were placed statues of 30 heroes of the American Revolution .  However, because of the enormous cost of the project (about $ 1 million), it was decided to restrict the obelisk in the Greco-Roman style .  Monument immediately subjected to merciless criticism, it was even called "a stalk of asparagus" .  The authoritative edition of New York Tribune christened obelisk "huge chimney of the slums of the Potomac" .

Construction began only in 1848, but was suspended due to the civil war. The unfinished memorial towering over the years by Washington as a mighty tree stump. Mark Twain ridiculed "smokestacks with a broken top" in "holy silence fertile shadow" dozing cattle. Construction work resumed in 1877, and has already opened the monument President Chester A. Arthur 21 February 1885. Despite the fact that during the construction of a society managed to get used to the unusual monument, there were also dissatisfied. So, a columnist from the publication American Architect and Building News annoyed: "It is a pity that it will take several centuries before the awful monument finally collapses."

9. Eiffel Tower

Paris, France

The French government planned to coincide with the centenary of the Revolution of the opening of a grand structure that would symbolize the industrial might of France .  It was originally planned to build a tower that would be the tallest building not only in Paris but also in the world .  The contest was filed numerous projects, but the jury unanimously chose the innovative plan of the engineer Gustave Eiffel - trehsotmetrovoy iron tower on four pillars .  When the project was announced, and it became known that the tower will fall in one of the elite areas of the center of Paris, on the Champs de Mars, in the community erupted a scandal .  In 1887, 300 known artists, including Guy de Maupassant and Alexandre Dumas, have signed a letter of protest to the municipality in which characterized the structure as "useless and monstrous", as "ridiculous tower that looms over Paris like a gigantic factory chimney" .  Residents of nearby houses were afraid that the railway construction will attract lightning, or simply fall, burying their home and repeatedly demanded to stop construction .  The municipality refused to deal with outraged Parisians and Eiffel personally reassured them, saying that the tower is harmless, after which the construction work resumed .  Parisians with horror and awe watching the erection of the tower, calling it the "awkward elephant", the "giraffe", the "cumbersome metal beast, standing on four legs" .

When the tower finally opened in 1889 (the construction was completed in record time - two years), the flow of wanting to visit it was endless. Among them were intellectuals, signed the famous letter of protest. So, Maupassant regularly dined at the restaurant on the first level of the tower, and not tired of talking about his annoying "this high pyramid of iron ladders, a giant skeleton, disgusting." Asked why he was in such a case it happens regularly, Maupassant said: "This is the only place in Paris where you can not see."