the.com/sydney opera house
A roof so iconic it bankrupted an architect and seduced a nation.
means A performing arts complex in Sydney, Australia, famous for its white shell-shaped roof, built on a point jutting into the harbor.
from The name is simply geographic — Sydney, the city, plus Opera House, describing its function — but the building's story is the real tale: Danish architect Jørn Utzon won a 1957 international design competition with sketches so unconventional that engineers initially couldn't figure out how to build the roof. Construction dragged on for over a decade, costs ballooned roughly fifteenfold, and Utzon resigned in 1966 amid political and financial disputes, leaving before his masterpiece was finished. He never returned to see it completed in 1973.
- construction time
- planned 4 years, took 14
- cost overrun
- budgeted $7m, cost $102m
- architect's exit
- jørn utzon quit, never saw it finished
- roof tiles
- over 1 million self-cleaning swedish tiles