Jørn Utzon designed the Sydney Opera House, the Australian landmark opened in 1973.
The Danish architect won an international design competition in 1957 with a proposal featuring dramatic shell-like roofs above a broad podium. The building stands on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, a site with deep significance for the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. Its distinctive roof forms were eventually developed from sections of a sphere, allowing the complex geometry to be engineered and built.
Construction began in 1959 and continued for 14 years. Engineering advances, design changes, and rising costs made the project unusually difficult. Utzon left the project in 1966 before its completion, and an Australian team led the later interior work. Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the building on October 20, 1973.
The Opera House contains multiple performance venues, including the Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre. UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in 2007, praising it as a twentieth-century architectural masterpiece that combines creative vision with engineering innovation.