A building that took sixteen years, ten times its budget and its architect's career, and is worth every part of that.
In 1957 an unknown 38-year-old Danish architect named Jørn Utzon won an international competition with a drawing that the assessors had, by one account, already discarded before Eero Saarinen arrived late, went through the rejected pile and pulled it out.
Construction began in 1959 before the design was resolved — the government wanted work started before an election — and the central problem, how to build the shells, took years to solve. The answer, arrived at in 1961, was that every shell could be cut from the surface of a single sphere of the same radius, which made them repeatable and buildable.
It was estimated at £3.5 million and seven years. It cost $102 million and took sixteen, funded largely by a state lottery.
Utzon
In 1966, after a change of government and a new works minister who withheld payments and challenged his decisions, Utzon resigned and left Australia. He never returned, and he never saw the completed building.
The interiors were finished by an Australian team to different designs, and the acoustic and functional compromises that followed have been argued about ever since — the major hall became the concert hall rather than the opera theatre, which is why the opera company plays in a space smaller than its architect intended.
In 1999 Utzon was reengaged as a consultant and produced design principles for future work; the Utzon Room was completed to his design in 2004. He died in 2008. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007, one of very few listed while its architect was still alive.
The tiles
1,056,006 of them, in two shades of Swedish-made glazed and matt white, laid in chevron panels. They are self-cleaning in rain and there is no scaffolding — the roof has never been washed.
Visiting
Guided tours run through the day, about an hour, taking in the foyers and usually one or two of the theatres depending on rehearsals. There are also tour-and-tasting and backstage options, the latter starting very early and including breakfast in the green room.
Seeing a performance is the better option if the programme suits. The building holds seven venues — the Concert Hall, the Joan Sutherland Theatre, the Drama Theatre, the Playhouse, the Studio, the Utzon Room and the forecourt — with around 1,800 performances a year. Cheap seats exist and the building is the same building whether you paid $40 or $200.
The Concert Hall reopened in 2022 after a two-year acoustic renewal, and the difference is audible.
Photographing it
Not from the forecourt, where you are too close. The good positions are Mrs Macquarie’s Chair in the Botanic Garden, which gives you the House and the Bridge together; Dawes Point under the bridge; the Manly ferry, which passes it; and Blues Point across the water.
Sunrise from Mrs Macquarie’s is the classic and is worth the alarm.
Practicalities
The forecourt and the boardwalk around the building are public and free at any hour. There are bars and restaurants at the lower level.
Circular Quay is five minutes away and is a hub for trains, ferries, buses and light rail.
More Landmarks
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Fifty-three thousand tonnes of steel, six million rivets, and three quite different ways to get on top of it.
Bondi Beach
A kilometre of sand, a surf club that invented lifesaving, and a coastal walk that is better than the beach.
The Rocks
The oldest European quarter in Australia, saved from demolition by a builders' union in the 1970s.