One of the world’s most famous buildings was almost never built. When the Australian government called for architects to design a performing arts center, over two hundred entries poured in from around the world. It was only when one of the judges, who had arrived late, insisted on reviewing all of the proposals that Jørn Utzon’s sketch, which had been rejected, was selected in 1957.
Construction began in early 1959 and dragged on until 1973, a whopping decade after the originally projected completion date. In those years, the project ran into serious roadblocks: Utzon’s design was very vague and the engineers were stymied as to how they would actually build the shells; inclement weather; paperwork and legalities; funding the ever increasing costs; and the resignation of Utzon himself when tensions between the Danish architect and the Australian government became too much in early 1966. Utzon left the country and never returned to Australia, never seeing his famous design brought to life in person. In the end, the Opera House cost over one hundred million dollars, fourteen times over the initial budget of seven million dollars.
In my opinion, this magnificent building is well worth the trouble.
The interior.
Inside one of the concert halls.
Pictured below, the “clouds” above the orchestra allow the musicians to hear the music they are playing. Most of the organ’s pipes are not visible to the audience. The organ took several years to be properly tuned.
The roof has more than one million tiles in a chevron pattern.
