We got on the Circular Quay (Key) ferry which is a hustling, bustling port full of restaurants, shops, buildings and the Opera House. We purchased 2 tickets for a tour and had only 10 minutes to spare.
It was an amazing tour and experience. Not only did we get to see the inside of many of the theaters and concert halls but also heard of the building of this amazing piece of Sydney’s history.
When it was decided to build an Opera House a call went out to architects worldwide for submissions. We got to see many of those that were submitted and none was spectacular. There were round ones, square ones, some with a few angles but nothing too imaginative or creative. Somehow the Danish architect submitted his late but one of the judges wanted to see the drawing anyway and sure enough it won the approval of the committee.
Unfortunately no one really knew how to complete or build this architectural wonder and it was given a time frame of 3 years to complete and 7 million dollars.
Of course the history of the building is much more in depth than I am relating but finally they figured out how to build the ribs of the building AFTER they had already begun the foundation. Also time had now stretched out and a new change of government took over. The designer was told he would not get one cent more until everything worked out and he chose to resign from the project. A group of highly skilled Australian architects came in and the project was finally finished 16 years and $100 million dollars later. Since the Opera House was so over budget they formed the first lottery and within 1 ½ years the building was paid off.
The sad thing is that the designer never returned to see his finished design. He declined to return to Australia to see his creation and died in 2009 without ever setting foot in his finished masterpiece. His sons have been back but never him.
Some interesting facts are the 1,200,000 roof tiles are a mixture of cream and white so as not to blind people with the sheer white of it. They require very little cleaning and come from Sweden. Water runs off of them and into unseen gutters that go into the Harbor. The people who lived across from the building in the 1960’s complained that the Opera House would bring down their home values. Of course that hasn’t been the case. Around the same time the Opera House was designed and being built Denmark was also discovering the infamous Lego’s.
After being on the water today and seeing the hundreds of sailboats sailing in and out of the different harbours I cannot imagine any other design suitable for this city. One can only imagine what if they hadn’t looked at his design?
After our tour we hopped on a ferry that took us to Manly Beach which reminded me of a Southern California beach city. Once off the ferry we were immersed in thousands of people headed to the beach and the stores and restaurants. I put my feet in the water so I could say I swam in Australia and then Jim pointed out the nets nearby that keep the deadly sharks and jellyfish away. I was done then!
1 comment:
The builder was Joern Utzon....I left the name off the blog because I wasn't sure of it.
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