{"id":225954,"date":"2025-10-19T21:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T21:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/225954\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T21:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T21:09:09","slug":"today-in-history-october-20-how-beloved-aussie-landmark-could-have-looked-very-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/225954\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in History – October 20: How beloved Aussie landmark could have looked very different"},"content":{"rendered":"

T\ufeffhe Sydney Opera House – one of the most recognisable buildings in the world – was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on October 20, 1973.<\/p>\n

Its sail-like shell design pushed the boundaries of engineering during its 14 years of construction, and the building came in 14 times over its original budget at $102 million.<\/p>\n

In the 1950s, Danish designer J\u00f8rn Utzon had emerged the winner of a global contest to design the national opera house at Bennelong Point with his striking concept.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Danish architect Joern Utzon and a model for his design of the Sydney Opera House. (Sydney Morning Herald)<\/p>\n

But Sydney Harbour would have looked very different if one of the other designs had been given the nod by the NSW government.<\/p>\n

Runner-up in the competition went to the Philadelphia Collaborative Group – composed of seven influential American architects who went for a look far different to Utzon.<\/p>\n

They took their inspiration from the shape of a nautilus shell. The building had a spiral form with full-height windows, topped with a roof made from folded concrete covered in copper.<\/p>\n

One of the main backers for a national opera house was \ufeffSir Eugene Goossens, conductor for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the NSW Conservatorium of Music director.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/The Philadelphia Collaborative Group was made up of seven seminal American architects who taught at the University of Pennsylvania. Inspired by a nautilus shell, it consists of a spiral form with full height windows, topped with a roof made from folded concrete covered in copper. (NeoMam Studios\/Budget Direct Travel Insurance)<\/p>\n

While he never officially entered the design competition, he still put forward an idea.<\/p>\n

Goossens’ blueprint called for an Art Deco design, with an outdoor music bowl facing the water.\ufeff<\/p>\n

The top-ranking official alternative design from Australia came from Peter Kollar and Balthazar Korab.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe judges praised them for their “very skilful planning”.<\/p>\n

Many of the alternative designs went for a boxy, low-level appearance that was popular during the 1960s.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/This design, by Sir Eugene Goossens was never officially entered into the design competition – but it was still considered for the Opera House’s final look. The art deco design that could have been featured an outdoor music bowl out the front. (NeoMam Studios\/Budget Direct Travel Insurance)<\/p>\n

Among them were plans pitched by British architectural company Vine and Vine.<\/p>\n

They proposed a bright red building with two individual auditoriums, split by a foyer-restaurant area, and incorporating a sunken plaza by the harbour.<\/p>\n

But their two-hall concept failed to win over the judges who decided it lacked the dramatic impact to become an Australian landmark building.<\/p>\n

In the end, the above alternatives for the Sydney Opera House were quietly filed away, and never saw the light of day.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/The sprawling opera house design proposed by UK company Vine and Vine. (NeoMam Studios\/Budget Direct Travel Insurance)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Utzon’s building became embraced across Australia, with its distinctive sails appearing on national tourism adverts.<\/p>\n

In its first year, the opera house staged theatre productions and orchestral concerts, but also gave a nod to modern culture with concerts by the Bee Gees and Kamahl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"T\ufeffhe Sydney Opera House – one of the most recognisable buildings in the world – was opened by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-225954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}