| "I like to be on the edge of the impossible", said | | | | build. |
| John Utzon, the Danish architect who was | | | | Ten years after Utzon started work on the |
| responsible for designing the Sydney Opera | | | | opera house a newly elected Australian |
| House. On my recent visit to Australia I toured | | | | government gave him an ultimatum. He either had |
| the world- renowned landmark. I learned that its | | | | to make concessions in his design and collaborate |
| construction and design was indeed a story of | | | | with government architects so the building could |
| someone achieving 'the impossible', but it is also a | | | | be finished more quickly, or he had to quit. Utzon |
| story of dreams and relationships broken and | | | | resigned and the government hired others to |
| restored. | | | | complete his work. Utzon never went back to |
| The Sydney Opera House is a World Heritage Site | | | | Sydney to see the finished opera house even |
| because so many of the architectural methods | | | | though he won many of architecture's most |
| and engineering techniques used to build it were | | | | prestigious awards for designing it. |
| completely new and were created expressly for | | | | Thirty- three years after he'd resigned someone |
| its construction. Utzon's design for the building was | | | | from the opera house staff approached Utzon to |
| chosen from 233 submitted, but no one, including | | | | apologize to him and ask for an interview. Would |
| Utzon, was really sure a structure of its kind could | | | | he be willing to let them see all his notes and |
| be built. The tiles on the outside are just one | | | | drawings and would he explain his original ideas so |
| example of the innovation required. They change | | | | they could be kept for posterity? Utzon accepted |
| color depending on the amount of daylight and the | | | | the apology and agreed to the interview. Now the |
| temperature, so they rarely look the same. Most | | | | Australian government is slowly making changes |
| importantly they are self -cleaning. It took Utzon | | | | to the Opera House so that eventually it will look |
| three years to design just the tiles. | | | | exactly as Utzon planned. They have already |
| Utzon devised and tested sixteen different | | | | replaced concrete outer walls with banks of |
| schemes for making the famous white sails on | | | | windows and repainted interior walls with new |
| the building's roof before he figured out how to | | | | colors following Utzon's original plans. Utzon's son |
| cut them from circles of steel. 16,000 workers | | | | has flown to Sydney to supervise these changes. |
| were required to be on site during the | | | | John Utzon died last year at age 90 but he died |
| construction of the signature 'sails'. Utzon by the | | | | knowing that his original 'dream' for the Opera |
| way did not call them sails. He wanted them to be | | | | House would become a reality in the future. |
| abstract so each visitor to the opera house could | | | | Seven million people from all over the world visit |
| have their own idea what they looked like. Some | | | | the opera house each year and 350,000 take a |
| people say they remind them of waves, a | | | | guided tour. They learn all about how the one of |
| dragon's back, seashells, or dishes in a dishwasher. | | | | kind architectural masterpiece was built. They also |
| I thought they looked like Marilyn Munroe's white | | | | hear the story of how the relationship between |
| dress in the movie Some Like It Hot when a blast | | | | the opera house designer and the country of |
| of air from the subway grate blows her skirt up | | | | Australia was broken and restored because each |
| into the air. Whatever they remind you of, those | | | | party was willing to be gracious and forgiving. Both |
| 'sails' on the opera house roof took eight years to | | | | of the stories are inspiring and important. |