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Formerly: National Opera House
Built:
1962- 1973
Cost: A$100,000,000.00
Designed by: Jørn Utzon
Type: Entertainment Venue
City: Sydney
State: New South Wales
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W
ith the amount of bureaucratic bungling that went on both behind the scenes, and played out in public, it is amazing that this incredibly beautiful structure was ever built. The idea for an opera house for the city of Sydney wasn't a new one. It had been discussed as part of a post-World War II building program. But a lack of vision kept it on the back burner until 1954 when a search for a location was started. The government eventually settled on Bennelong Point as a suitable location. At the time the land was where the city had its yard for tram system. With a site selected the next step was finding an architect. The contest rules were made public in January, 1956 and by December 233 people had entered. The winner was Jørn Utzon, of Denmark whose vision of nine overlapping shells on the Sydney waterfront was chosen over more conventional square and circular buildings. The forms of the shells could be described as sections radiating from the bottom of an orange, or the frond of a palm plant unfurling in the sun. Either way, there were significant challenges because the sections had to be pre-fabricated off site and snapped together on Bennelong Point. This was where things started to fall apart for the project. The architect insisted that there was only one company capable of producing a particular part of the roof. The politicians insisted it be put out for bid. Since they controlled funding for the project, the architect was slowly strangled by restrictions, postponements, and other power-grabs to the point that by February, 1966 Utzon resigned. Another argument broke out between the Australian Broadcasting Commission and the Elizabethan Theatre Trust (which eventually became the Australian Opera). The ABC wanted the acoustics to have a two-second reverberation -- suitable for broadcast. The opera needed a different period to keep from throwing the performers off. The solution was to tune the acoustics in the large hall for symphonies and the small hall for opera. While this didn't sit well with the ETT, the government had spoken and they had to live with it. The problems weren't all political. After the foundation was laid, the roof support columns poured, and roof assembly started, it was discovered that those columns would not be sufficient to support the weight. Razing the site and starting again wasn't an option. So every day at 5:00pm demolition teams blew up the original columns and construction crews build larger ones in their place. Today there is no sign of the strife that marred one of the great buildings of the world. The Sydney Opera House has become an icon of a continent to the rest of the world. Its arches gracefully greet visitors from around the world, welcoming them to a progressive city without even hinting at the turmoil that nearly cost the building its very existence.
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