By 1963 the foundation and podium had been completed and construction of the roof shells began. Firstly, the foundation and the substantial podium. The Opera House was built in three phases. In the words of Sir Ove Arup, constructing it was 'an adventure into the unknown'.
With each new design the cost increased and the completion date moved. The architecture was groundbreaking and the engineering to produce the gracefully floating roofs was at the edge of the possible. Utzon’s drawings had not been properly assessed by engineers before submission so over the next five years considerable assessment and remodellings went back and forth between Utzon, the consulting engineers Ove Arup and Partners and the Sydney Opera House Executive Committee. In January 1957 Premier Cahill announced Utzon’s design as the winner and in July committed $7 million to the Opera House’s construction with a completion date of December 1963. Saarinen championed the entry and convinced the panel that this was the winning submission. Saarinen was underwhelmed by their choices and looking through the rejected plans came across Jørn Utzon’s – design number 218. There is no record of the evaluation process but legend has it that the respected American architect Eero Saarinen arrived after the three other members of the judging panel had shortlisted designs. For 1950s Australia, it was a bold and far sighted decision.Ī year later, the premier announced an international competition to design an opera house to be built at Bennelong Point, then occupied by a tram depot. In 1954 Goossens met with New South Wales Premier Joseph Cahill and the two agreed that Sydney needed a major performance venue. A fine hall is essential if the public is to hear the orchestra at its best. Sydney is taking its place among the world’s major symphonic groups.
We must have an Opera house within five years. A few years later, he publicly called for a world-class concert hall:
In 1947 the renowned British conductor Eugene Goossens was appointed to lead the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Sydney grew from 500,000 to 1.5 million people during the first half of the 20th century, but the city’s cultural life was thought to have lagged behind its population growth.
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