Publications - Building a masterpiece: the Sydney Opera House
Building a masterpiece: the Sydney Opera House
Building a masterpiece: the Sydney Opera House

Building a masterpiece: the Sydney Opera House

 

Anne Watson (ed)
$70.00 ($63.01 member price)
[prices shown are in Australian dollars and include GST]
ISBN 978 085331 941 2 (085331 941 3)
hard cover, 192 pages, 280 x 235 mm
Over 200 illustrations in colour and b&w
Publisher: Powerhouse Publishing in assoc with Lund Humphries
Distributor: New South Books
Published: 2006 (reprinted 2007)

+++ WORLD HERITAGE listing for the Sydney Opera House announced on 28 June 2007 as a site of international cultural significance, taking its place alongside the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids and the Great Wall of China. DISCOVER the story leading to this great honour in Building a masterpiece +++

Half a century has passed since the NSW government launched a competition to give Sydney a new music and performance centre. The result is the magnificent Sydney Opera House designed by the visionary Danish architect Jørn Utzon and the starting point for Building a masterpiece: the Sydney Opera House.

When construction began, few could have imagined the enduring impact that Utzon?s creation would have on Sydney, or indeed on the nation. But any great feat of imagination and ingenuity creates sub-plots and the Opera House, perhaps more than any other 20th-century structure of its stature, has generated many.

Through engaging essays written by eminent authors and experts in the field and wonderful images, Building a masterpiece explores some of the untold chapters in the long history of the Opera House?s gestation, development and completion -? of individuals whose careers were made or broken by the Opera House, the companies whose reputations were secured through their association with the building, and the pioneering construction methods, innovative technologies and methodologies developed to meet the demands of its unprecedented design and challenging construction. The workers who built the building, the politicians, architects and members of the public who championed it and its often beleaguered architect are discussed as is its current world status as a symbol of Australia.

This comprehensive and richly illustrated book offers a unique account of the Sydney Opera House and is essential reading for anyone wishing to gain fresh insights into the complex history of this iconic building.


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