March 8 - Sydney Opera House





Some interesting facts about Sydney Opera House
  1. Sydney Opera House sits on Bennelong Point. Bennelong Point was named after Woollarawarre Bennelong, a senior Eora man at the time of the arrival of British colonisers in Australia in 1788. Where tribes gathered for celebrations.
  2. The original cost estimate to build Sydney Opera House was $7 million. The final cost was $102 million and it was largely paid for by a State Lottery.
  3. 233 designs were submitted for the Opera House international design competition held in 1956. Jørn Utzon from Denmark was announced the winner, receiving ₤5000 for his design.
  4. Construction was expected to take four years. It took 14 years. Work commenced in 1959 and involved 10,000 construction workers.
  5. There are more than 1 million roof tiles covering approximately 1.62 hectares sitting over the structure. They were made in Sweden.
  6. Sydney Opera House was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20th October, 1973. She has since visited four times, most recently in 2006.
  7. When the Sydney Symphony Orchestra is on stage in the Concert Hall, the temperature must be 22.5 degrees to ensure the instruments stay in tune. Temperature and humidity are critical to musical instruments.
  8. More than 10.9 million people visit the Opera House every year
  9. Sydney Opera House is cooled using seawater taken directly from the harbour. The system circulates cold water from the harbour through 35 kilometres of pipes to power both the heating and air conditioning in the building.
Warning: the following pictures are structural aspects of the Opera House and you may get bored.

The Opera House is actual many venues; including concert halls, playhouses, opera halls and standard theaters. And they host a variety of entertainment.



The interior - wood was used to enhance it



The structure is precast concrete shells (no columns) and built in segments and assembled on site



Even the windows are structural

 

There are over a million tiles and only 11,000 have been replaced since the House opened in 1973 

We sat in a couple of theaters, but were only allowed to take pictures of the Joan Sutherland Theater. All the chairs in each of the venues were truly comfy.


Stage

Time to say good night to Sydney












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