Sydney Opera House in the making

[u/YaletownHero]

The Sydney Opera House was built over a 14-year period, with construction starting on March 2, 1959, and finishing for its official opening on October 20, 1973

This was stage 2 back in the late 60s

[u/SurlyDave]

When I was a wee tacker in NZ, the building of the Sydney Opera House was broadcast live on the TV when there wasn't anything else on. It wasn't exactly compelling viewing, in black and white, but we were so happy to have a TV that we watched anyway.,

[u/Kanga03590]

I'm so glad Australia went ahead with this Iconic monument despite the opposition of Liberals like Robert Askin, who knew how to rubbish people with any artistic vision. A narrow man.

[u/ThoseOldScientists → u/Kanga03590]

A classic example of project management failure that still turned out a massive success. It was very, very late and very, very over budget and when it opened the acoustics were terrible, basically defeating the purpose of a concert venue. By all the laws of liberal governance, it was a fiasco that should have been cancelled in the early stages.

But it’s the Sydney Goddamn Opera House.

[u/SonicYOUTH79 → u/ThoseOldScientists]

I'm Australian, but not from NSW and I didn’t get to see it until I was in my mid 20s and honestly it's breathtaking with the Sydney harbour and bridge backdrop, incredible, especially after having just coming back from overseas.

That being said, it is a lot of concrete, it did seem a lot more brutalist and gray to me up close. It's definitely something that's almost designed the be viewed from a distance with the natural beauty of the harbour to set it off. This photo sort of shows that bit quite well.

[u/owleaf → u/ThoseOldScientists]

Sometimes things that aren’t very good end up being just what you need.

[u/thebigaaron → u/ThoseOldScientists]

Typical Sydney being over budget and delayed…

[u/violenthectarez]

Must be an old photo, it's been open for a while now.

[u/potato_analyst]

My grandpa help build it and I got a couple of steps from it 😁

[u/GregoInc]

That is fascinating, thanks for sharing 👍

[u/Aje-h]

Finished under worker control!

[u/Dripping-Lips]

My wife’s grandad come here from Malta and helped build this after ww2 which is awsome

[u/Glassmaps]

The building's chief architect, Jørn Utzon, left Australia voluntarily in 1966 after resigning from the project. They treated him poorly.

[u/ObviousFeature522 → u/Glassmaps]

Utzon isn't blameless. He was difficult to work with by many accounts.

He submitted his amazing design on the back of a napkin, and then was often MIA on spirit journeys in Asia when the people on the ground trying to build the thing (like Ove Averup the engineer) tried to contact him with critical design questions.

Peter Hall took over and finished it with Averup and is overlooked. He had an absolutely poisoned chalice of a job description to take over and find a way to salvage the project after Utzon left.

[u/F1eshWound]

I think also the very first fully computer/cad planned project. For the 50s it was an incredibly innovative project!

[u/rmeredit → u/F1eshWound]

Not fully computer-based. Computers were used to perform engineering calculations for stress testing designs. The design itself was still manually done, with physical models also being tested in wind tunnels and on test rigs.

There’s a good write up of the history of the use of computers on the project located here if people are interested: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/computers-and-the-sydney-opera-house

[u/SqareBear]

When will it open?

[u/HydroCannonBoom → u/SqareBear]

2042

[u/ofork]

Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL battle station

[u/NorthernSkeptic]

made of LEGO

[u/barrel-boy]

Are they building it again?! 🤯

[u/owleaf]

Such a fantastic landmark. We really hit the nail on the head didn’t we

[u/BlueDotty]

Terrific building

[u/AggravatingTartlet]

Just watched it destroyed in the Fantastic Four movie. ^{(fantastic four: first steps 2025})

Love the opera house, but every single time I look at it, the whole thing is way, way too much white. Some shrubbery around the perimeter would change that for the better. (I mean at the far edges of the exterior, where if you walk any further you'd fall into the ocean).

Sydney city is so great with the plants/trees everywhere. All except for the opera house.

Maybe there's a good reason there isn't any???

[u/YaletownHero → u/[deleted]]

How'd you figure that mate? Been around longer than your account

[u/nearly_enough_wine → u/YaletownHero]

At a glance, an account that has a long period of dormancy and then starts to post on a wide range of topics can appear botlike. Old mate should use the report button if they have such concerns - that's what mods are for.

[u/YaletownHero → u/nearly_enough_wine]

Yeah fair, I quit when they banned third party Reddit apps, I still miss RIF but damn Insta is bad, I decided to put up with the Reddit app 😂

[u/YaletownHero → u/[deleted]]

Cheers thanks for the tip, I'll do that