20 October: Sydney Opera House

Queen Elizabeth II opened the Sydney Opera House on October 20, 1973. 10 things you might not know about Sydney Opera House:

1. The entire site of the Sydney Opera House covers an area of 5.798 hectares. Eight Boeing 747s could sit wing-to-wing on the site. It is 185 metres long, 120 metres wide, and has roof sections weighing up to 15 tons. There are over a million tiles on the roof. The highest roof point is 67 metres above sea-level, the height of a 22-storey building.
2. The roof is made of 2,194 pre-cast concrete sections weighing up to 15 tons each and held together by 350 km of tensioned steel cable, which if laid end-to-end would reach Canberra.
3. The Sydney Opera House contains 6,225 square metres of glass and 645 kilometres of electric cable.
4. The architect was Jorn Utzon, who beat 232 other entrants in the contest to design the Opera House in 1956. Three of the judges rejected his entry, but the fourth judge declared it outstanding.
5. The Sydney Opera House was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007. UNESCO describes it as “great urban sculpture set in a remarkable waterscape, at the tip of a peninsula projecting into Sydney Harbour.”
6. It has unique glass. 6,233 square metres of topaz coloured Glass was used in the construction of the Sydney Opera House. The glass was made to order by Boussois-Souchon-Neuvesel in France in a shade used exclusively by the Sydney Opera House.
7. The first person to perform at the Sydney Opera House was Paul Robeson, bass singer, actor and Civil Rights Activist. In 1960, Robeson had performed Ol’ Man River for the construction workers.
8. There are 1,000 rooms in the Opera House, and seven venues. The largest is the Concert Hall which has 2,679 seats. The smallest is the Utzon room, which seats up to 210 people.
9. Though the “sails” of the Sydney Opera House appear uniformly White from a distance, they actually have a subtle chevron pattern composed of 1,056,006 tiles in two colours: glossy white and matte cream. The sails were built using specially made cranes built in France. Each crane cost $100,000.
10. It exceeded its projected budget by over fourteen times and was completed ten years behind schedule.

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