As Sydney celebrated the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Opera House in 1973, the event was attended by the son of Jan Utzon, the building's designer. Although it has been four decades since the completion of the opera house, the controversy behind its foundation is never forgotten.
When Australian PM Joseph Cahill announced a contest in December 1955 to design an opera house, Utzon filed an entry of 12 drawings, which were initially rejected, until an architect named Eero Sarinen picked his design and eventually became the winner. Although the judges referred to his design as very simple, they finally acknowledged the design's innovativeness.
When the construction started in March 1959, the estimated cost was set at seven million Australian dollars; however, the final design has not yet been finished by Utzon. A couple of years following the construction, the plan was a year late from its schedule because the construction has already started even before the designs were completed.
In 1965, Australian PM Robert Askin and David Hughes, a public works minister, took control of the project. They required Utzon to provide the completion date and final costing. But when Utzon refused to give up the creative control over the project, Hughes cut off the funding for the architect, which forced him to resign in 1966. At that time, the construction was almost completed while the cost had already reached AUD $23 million. The resignation was followed by controversy and protests by people who demanded for Utzon's reinstatement. The architect later left the country.
But, in the late 1990s, the Sydney Opera House Trust initiated the communication with Utzon and made him the building consultant.
Today, the Sydney Opera House receives eight million guests every year, enhancing the economy of Australia by AUD $775 million, and is being regarded as an iconic building that has earned Sydney an international significance, CPH Post reported.
