The Eiffel Tower is so iconic that it is easy to forget Parisians weren't so keen on the lattice structure when it was first unveiled at the city's world's fair in 1889.

The monument is one of many bizarre and idiosyncratic structures built for world’s fairs: ambitious, ostentatious and optimistic exhibitions popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that predicted a bright future for humankind. It is the relics of this era from around the world that are showcased in a new book: Lost Utopias by photographer Jade Doskow.

Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures Show all 14 1 /14 Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures Montreal 1967 World’s Fair, Man and His World, Alexander Calder’s L’Homme, 2012. Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures Seattle 1962 World’s Fair, The Century 21 Exposition, Universal Fountain, 2007. Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures San Antonio 1968 World’s Fair, The Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas, Monorail Fountain, 2013. Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures San Antonio 1968 World’s Fair, The Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas, Instituto Cultural de Mexico with Olmec Head, 2013. Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures New York 1964 World’s Fair, Peace Through Understanding, Unisphere, 2009. Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures New York 1964 World’s Fair, Peace Through Understanding, New York State Pavilion, 2008. Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures Montreal 1967 World’s Fair, Man and His World, Habitat ’67, Night View, 2012. Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures Montreal 1967 World’s Fair, Man and His World, Buckminster Fuller’s Geodesic Dome with Solar Experimental House, 2012. Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures Knoxville 1982 World’s Fair, Energy Turns the World, Sunsphere, 2009. Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures Some exhibition pieces have fared better, however. The Eiffel Tower has become one of the world's most famous structures. Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures Page 27. Plate 9. Brussels 1958 World’s Fair, A World View: A New Humanism, Atomium, 2007. Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures Page 26. Plate 8. Montreal 1967 World’s Fair, Man and His World, Yves Trudeau’s Le Phare du Cosmos/Blue Robot, 2015. Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures San Francisco 1915 World’s Fair, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Palace of Fine Arts, 2015. Abandoned World's Fair monuments - In pictures Seattle 1962 World’s Fair, The Century 21 Exposition, Monorail with Gehry-designed EMP Museum, 2014.

“World’s fairs were temporal, extremely ambitious events designed to encapsulate past era’s goals and achievements through extraordinary architecture, landscaping and exhibitions, created by top city planners, engineers, architects, scientists, and artists,” explains Doskow.

“I see them as time capsules, of dusty prisms through which to peer at these past ambitions and goals.

“While a few of these remaining structures are perpetually successful on multiple levels – most notably the Eiffel Tower – more of these unusually designed objects have been repurposed, renovated or left as the sole remnant in an overgrown section of a public park, weeds and bushes and flowers growing over and around."

In the five years that Doskow worked on the project, her most memorable shoot was at the St Louis Zoo in the US, where she was given exclusive access at 6am.

"Their aviary was part of the zoological exhibit in the 1904 Exposition. It was a misty, rainy morning, and as I set up my equipment it was quite a surreal moment, the soft drops of rain, the loud cries of the huge birds that were staring at me curiously.

“As I typically photograph architecture, not nature, this was quite a special moment. It was a perfect blurring of environment and architecture engulfing me.”

World’s fairs may seem archaic but the concepts behind them shaped the future of many cities, from transportation used to get the public to the fairs to the parks left behind, says Doskow.

“I hope that my work causes readers to start making connections on why a city is designed the way it is, why a certain monument unexpectedly is placed in the middle of a traffic roundabout, why a ruinous pavilion in a popular city park, designed by a famous architect, exists in perpetual limbo, ivy growing up the stocky concrete columns, or why people happen to go to their office jobs inside a gigantic golden disco-ball tower the Sunsphere in Knoxville, Tennessee," she says referring to the globe featured in The Simpsons.

Doskow’s work also questions why some monuments, such as the Eiffel Tower, remain famous while others sink into obscurity.

“This question is a huge part of what this project is all about: which hosting cities had more vision for the future, or more budget, or more imagination. In my opinion, every fair since 1889 has been trying to outdo the Eiffel Tower – to no avail. Somehow Eiffel was able to channel the utmost in engineering, beauty, and daring into this tower, although at the time of construction many considered it to be ‘vulgar’ and ‘ugly’. Time of course has proven otherwise.”