Building the Sydney Opera House
An architectural icon, 10 years late and 1,457% over budget
Chris Wild
1957-1973
Malice in blunderland - Architect Jørn Utzon, commenting on the construction of Sydney Opera House
The goal: a multi-purpose venue with a hall large enough for 3,000 people, and a smaller hall for 1,200. New South Wales Premier Joseph Cahill opened the design competition for a Syndey opera, ballet and lecture house in 1955. The international competition attracted 233 entries — only the question of cost was not considered.Danish architect Jørn Utzon was announced as the winner. (His designs were reputedly rescued from a pile of rejected submissions.) Utzon's innovative, modern plan was based on the Expressionist movement, a utopian form of architecture which flowered in post-WWI Germany. The now-famous roof featured precast concrete panels loosely referred to as “shells," covered by ceramic tiles. But as Utzon had not specified the precise shape, the suggested methods for casting them proved problematic.
The drawings submitted for this scheme are simple to the point of being diagrammatic. Nevertheless we are convinced they present a concept capable of becoming one of the great buildings of the world. - Assessors' Report, January 1957
The Opera House could become the world's foremost contemporary masterpiece if Utzon is given his head. - OVE ARUP, ENGINEER
As the project proceeded, tensions grew. After the government rushed into the project to retain funds, it elected Robert Askin in 1965, a prominent critic of the opera house, as new Premier of New South Wales. It didn't help that the venue's financial burden was growing. Several late modifications to the layout added to already ballooning costs.Fed up with the new government’s lack of cooperation and unable to pay his staff, Utzon resigned from the project in 1966. There were demonstrations calling for his restoration, but another architect, Peter Hall, took over.
His concept was so daring that he himself could solve its problems only step by step. - SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, MARCH 17, 1966
Ten years late and an estimated 1,457% over budget, the project was completed. The Opera house was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on Oct. 20, 1973. Utzon was not invited, and his name was not mentioned. The Australian government initiated contact with Utzon in the late 1990s, and in 1999 he was made a design consultant overseeing future developments, refurbishing the reception area of the Opera House. It was renamed the Utzon Room in his honor in 2004. Despite this, he never returned to Australia. Awards came later in life. Utzon was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Sydney and the keys to the city of Sydney. In 2003 he received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, a top honor for architecture.Jørn Utzon died in 2008.
There is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece. It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world – a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent. - Pritzker Prize citation, 2003
