The Sydney Opera House was a Financial Disaster

Comments · 741

• ME

  @megaprojects9649 · 2 years ago · pinned

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• AD

  @adam872 · 2 years ago

  The Opera House is one of those rare situations where you go: hang the expense, it was totally worth it. I love that place.

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• PE

  @pedroperez6676 · 2 years ago

  So they lost a great financial opera-tunity

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• JS

  @jsleeio · 2 years ago

  other Sydney Opera House trivia: the biggest events it has hosted were outside, like the famous Crowded House concert in 1996 with 250k attendees. Also for some of the year it has a resident long-nosed fur seal named Benny who lounges in the sun at the northern VIP steps which are quite close to water level

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• EQ

  @Equine_moon · 2 years ago

  🇩🇰Definitely one of the most iconic buildings in the world, and a silhouette that’s recognized world wide.<br>As a dane I’m very proud of it!<br>Think about the shape, and what it reminds people of, sails, shells etc., but more importantly what it doesn’t; it’s not a phallic powerplay, not a mausoleum, not another revival of gothic style, not Brutalism. It’s organic flowing timelessness all of it’s own and I applaud Sydney for building it!

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• PE

  @peterwilliams6289 · 2 years ago

  The Opera House was built without a carpark. &nbsp;This was later remedied by drilling a huge, vertical cylindrical shaft nearby and installing an 8-level double-helix carpark - which is a pretty unique construction in its own right. &nbsp;If you drive down to the bottom of the spiral, you only actually travel every second level, then you cut across the bottom and spiral up the intermediate levels.

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• MR

  @MrDan708 · 2 years ago

  As a general rule, projects like this rarely get done under budget and almost always blow past the budget by a mile.

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• EL

  @elroyfudbucker6806 · 2 years ago

  A few facts: The NSW state lottery paid for most of the construction, so it kind of was taxpayers money. It was built on the site of the old Bennelong point tram terminus. Utzon took inspiration from the inside of a walnut shell for the interior, which, although expensive, would probably have made for good acoustics.

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• JA

  @jackson857 · 2 years ago

  As an Australian who doesn&apos;t live in Sydney it is most definitely worth it. Iconic.

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• NA

  @Nathan-IdeasHaveConsequences · 2 years ago (edited)

  A project like this was successful because it became iconic and culturally important, not so much because of financial profitability.

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• TH

  @theymademedoitiswear · 2 years ago

  even without watching the video i can tell you it was worth it.<br><br>However much it costed at the time, its been a driving force behind tourism in Sydney for like 50 years. Hard to even quantify how much money that is. Australia is far away from the rest of the world, we need iconic landmarks like that as drawing cards.

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• AN

  @andrewthorpe3219 · 2 years ago

  If you saw what was there before, the Sydney Opera House is a millionfold improvement.<br><br>It was a tram shed made of black stone that called like a child&apos;s clay model of a castle.

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