Fernsehturm Stuttgart

Stuttgart, 1956, about 217 meters to the antenna tip. This is the template for almost every concrete TV tower that followed. The plan was a plain steel lattice mast until engineer Fritz Leonhardt proposed a slender reinforced concrete tube with a basket of floors near the top, open to paying visitors. Critics balked at the cost and the untested method, but it was built in about 20 months and is widely described as the first tower of its kind and size in reinforced concrete. It was named a historic landmark of German engineering in 2009. The photo shows the pattern clearly: tapering shaft, glazed head, red and white antenna mast above.