India, Oct. 31 -- The Eiffel Tower was famously considered an eyesore, when it opened in 1889. Parisians mourned that their city had been scarred by this industrial-era metal behemoth.

The writer Guy de Maupassant famously ate lunch at one of the tower restaurants as often as he could (some accounts say every day), because he said it was the only place left from where he couldn't see the hideous thing.

When New York's Twin Towers were completed in 1973, they were derided for their lack of architectural detail.

With ornate marvels such as the Empire State and Chrysler buildings nearby, the joke went that New York was now a city of beautiful buildings, and the two boxes they came in.

The Eiffel would of course go on to become a symbol o...