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Speaker 1: Pushkin.

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Speaker 2: Important sources for the episode you're about to hear include

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Speaker 2: Helen Pitt's book The House and Peter Murray's The Saga

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Speaker 2: of Sydney Opera House, along with How Big Things Get

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Speaker 2: Done by Ben Flubier and Dan Gardner. If you'd like

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Speaker 2: to learn more about the Sydney Opera House or about

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Speaker 2: mega projects, I strongly recommend you pick up a copy

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Speaker 2: of one or all of these books, which are available

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Speaker 2: from all good booksellers. For a full list of our sources,

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Speaker 2: see the show notes at Timharford dot com. In a

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Speaker 2: clearing in a forest, a day's walk north of Copenhagen

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Speaker 2: stood a little house, a fairy tale setting worthy of

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Speaker 2: Hans Christian Andersen perhaps, But this is no fairy tale,

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Speaker 2: and it wasn't a fairytale house. It was low, flat

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Speaker 2: and minimalist, Denmark's first open plan house. It had been

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Speaker 2: built in nineteen fifty two without proper floor plans. The

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Speaker 2: house's young architect was building his own home, and he

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Speaker 2: had insisted instead on personally directing the work as it progressed.

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Speaker 1: But it was brilliant.

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Speaker 2: Denmark's most celebrated architect visited the construction site and muttered

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Speaker 2: under his breath. Hell, he's better than I am. Maybe so,

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Speaker 2: it was hard to be sure. The young architect Jan

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Speaker 2: Utson had won plenty of competitions, but with his career

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Speaker 2: interrupted by the war, that house was almost the only

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Speaker 2: thing he had actually built. Late in January nineteen fifty seven,

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Speaker 2: the phone in the Utzon home rang Yawn and his

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Speaker 2: wife were taking a winter walk in the woods. Their

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Speaker 2: ten year old daughter, Lynn was at home babies hit

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Speaker 2: her newborn brother. She answered the phone, Hello, the village

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Speaker 2: operator was on the other end. She knew the family.

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Speaker 3: Lynn, is your father home?

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Speaker 4: No?

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Speaker 3: Is your mother home?

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Speaker 4: No, they're aren't walking.

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Speaker 2: Quick, go find your father.

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Speaker 3: He's won a prize.

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Speaker 2: Is someone from the newspaper in Sydney, Australia go to

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Speaker 2: home to come quick? Lynn drops the phone, leaves her

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Speaker 2: sleeping brother, and grabs her bike. She races out into

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Speaker 2: the Danish winter, yelling for her parents. It must have

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Speaker 2: been alarmed to see their little blonde babysitting daughter cycling

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Speaker 2: towards them, screaming at the top of her voice.

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Speaker 4: Sydney, Sydney.

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Speaker 1: She skids to a halt.

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Speaker 4: You've won a prize.

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Speaker 2: You won something in Sydney someone's on the phone and

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Speaker 2: they want to talk to you. It must have felt

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Speaker 2: like a phone call from the moon. The unknown young

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Speaker 2: Dane Jorn Utson had won an international competition to design

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Speaker 2: the Sydney Opera House. But Utson couldn't have imagined what

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Speaker 2: a bitter.

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Speaker 1: Victory it would prove to be.

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Speaker 2: I'm Tim Harford and you're listening to cautionary tales. Eugene

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Speaker 2: Goosen's was a distinguished violinist and conductor. In the nineteen forties,

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Speaker 2: he moved from Britain to the far away city of Sydney,

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Speaker 2: where he was struck by three things. The beauty of

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Speaker 2: the harbor, the apparent indifference of the locals to that beauty,

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Speaker 2: and the lack of a really good venue for classical music.

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Speaker 2: Dreamed up an idea, build a huge opera house on

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Speaker 2: Benelong Point, a finger of rock poking out into Sydney's

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Speaker 2: glorious harbor, in which blue water is surrounded on all

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Speaker 2: sides by the city and spanned by the vast arch

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Speaker 2: of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Gooson's was charismatic, and local

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Speaker 2: politicians were keen to show that they could deliver cultural

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Speaker 2: amenities for Sydney voters. They formed a committee which announced

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Speaker 2: an open competition to design the.

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Speaker 1: New Opera House.

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Speaker 2: Anyone, even an unknown young architect from Denmark, could try

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Speaker 2: to win. As Goosen's grand project gathered momentum, he flew

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Speaker 2: back to London to be knighted by the Queen, and

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Speaker 2: on his return, tipped off by a journalist. Customs officers

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Speaker 2: asked to search his luggage. They found it to be

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Speaker 2: packed with naughty photographs and even naughtier rubber masks. In

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Speaker 2: nineteen fifties Australia, it was a scandal. Sir Eugene fled

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Speaker 2: back to London a broken man. Alas Sir Eugene's fate,

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Speaker 2: great talent, self inflicted wounds and a tragic end to

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Speaker 2: a great career is just the overture to the story

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Speaker 2: of the Sydney Opera House, in which the same dramatic

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Speaker 2: beats would play out on a much bigger stage. Not

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Speaker 2: that anyone should have expected the Sydney Opera House to

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Speaker 2: be an easy project. Sir Eugene had wanted big concert halls,

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Speaker 2: but Benelong Point was a cramped site.

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Speaker 1: The premiere of.

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Speaker 2: The state wanted a grand legacy, a building for the ages,

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Speaker 2: but no politician wanted to raise taxes to pay for it.

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Speaker 2: And opera houses are actually rather ungainly structures. Their bulging

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Speaker 2: towers for stage machinery are usually hidden behind grand facades,

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Speaker 2: but Sydney's opera House couldn't hide. It would be visible

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Speaker 2: across the water from north east and west, even from

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Speaker 2: above from the monumental Sydney Harbour Bridge. In announcing their competition,

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Speaker 2: then the committee laid down the challenge to architects from

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Speaker 2: around the world design an opera house for us. It

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Speaker 2: needs to be huge, fit onto a tiny site, look

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Speaker 2: amazing from any angle, and be cheap. Knock yourselves out.

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Speaker 2: In January nineteen fifty seven, the time came to choose

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Speaker 2: a winner. The judging panel spent four days sifting through

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Speaker 2: more than two hundred entries and drawing up a shortlist.

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Speaker 2: They were waiting for the arrival of the final judge,

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Speaker 2: an architectural rock star, the great Finnish American architect Eurosuarannon,

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Speaker 2: but he was running late. That was understandable. Sarannon was

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Speaker 2: a busy man, designer of landmarks such as the celebrated

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Speaker 2: TWA terminal at New York's International Airport and if buildings

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Speaker 2: like that helped New York to feel like the center

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Speaker 2: of the world, then Sydney, at the world's edge wanted

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Speaker 2: some of that stardust.

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Speaker 1: When the other.

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Speaker 2: Judges showed Ero saranon the ten leading entries, everyone could

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Speaker 2: tell that he wasn't impressed. The ideas were awkward compromises,

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Speaker 2: predictably boxed in by their attempts to satisfy the contradictory

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Speaker 2: requirements of the competition. Sarannon shook his head and went

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Speaker 2: for a stroll to ben Along Point. He sat and

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Speaker 2: sketched for a while, caressed on three sides by the

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Speaker 2: lapping waters of Sydney Harbor. It really was a magnificent spot.

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Speaker 2: He returned to the judging room and started flipping through

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Speaker 2: the rejects. There was one which stood out as completely different,

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Speaker 2: even though it was really little more than a sketch.

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Speaker 2: There was a monumental base, reminiscent of an Aztec pyramid

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Speaker 2: or a Chinese imperial palace. Floating above it were light

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Speaker 2: shell like roof structures overlapping like the sales of some

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Speaker 2: grand ship. It was like no building Sarnon had ever seen.

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Speaker 2: He laid it out, stepped back to ponder it, stepped

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Speaker 2: forward to peer at the details. Then he turned to

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Speaker 2: the other judges.

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Speaker 3: Gentlemen, here is your opera house.

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Speaker 2: Twelve days later, the state premiere, Joseph Cahill, stands in

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Speaker 2: front of the cameras with a sealed envelope. He's a

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Speaker 2: former trade union organizer, not your stereotypical opera goer. But

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Speaker 2: now that the disgraced Sir Eugene Goosen's has fled the country,

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Speaker 2: ky Hill has surprised some people by stepping up as

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Speaker 2: the opera house's biggest champion. Like any good politician, he's

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Speaker 2: going to milk this dramatic moment. The winning design he

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Speaker 2: announces is scheme number two hundred and eighteen. And who

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Speaker 2: designed that? Ky Hill doesn't have the name to hand.

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Speaker 2: An official hurries forward, rummages in the envelope, pulls out

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Speaker 2: a second document. Ah, yes, a scheme number two hundred

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Speaker 2: and eighteen, submitted by yorn Utson of Hellebake, Denmark. Yorn Utzon,

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Speaker 2: who a reporter from the Sydney Morning Herald, places a

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Speaker 2: long distance call to directory assistance in Hellebake. They try

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Speaker 2: Utzen's office number, He's not there. Then they try his

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Speaker 2: home number. The operator comes back on the line. Apparently

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Speaker 2: he's gone out for a walk, but his daughter has

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Speaker 2: gone to find him. Is it okay to hold for

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Speaker 2: the first interview with the unknown winner of the Sydney

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Speaker 2: Opera House competition.

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Speaker 1: Sure he'll hold.

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Speaker 2: All of Australia wants to know about the mysterious Yawn Utson.

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Speaker 2: When the winning sketch was published, public opinion was divided.

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Speaker 2: Letters published in the Sydney Morning Herald described the design

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Speaker 2: as a wonderful piece of sculpture. A haystack covered by

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Speaker 2: several tarpaulins, array of hope, a sink with plates stacked

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Speaker 2: in readuless for washing, some large lovely ship of the imagination.

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Speaker 2: A hideous parachute which we cannot fold up and put away.

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Speaker 2: But when your Nutson arrived in Sydney, some of those

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Speaker 2: doubts began to melt away. Tall, blonde, blue eyed, that

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Speaker 2: sexy Danish accent movie star looks he's our Gary Cooper,

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Speaker 2: declared one local lady. Sydney was a bustling place, but

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Speaker 2: it usually felt far from the world's spotlight. Now it

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Speaker 2: felt as though Hollywood had come to call the city.

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Speaker 2: Fell in love with the man professional architects were more cautious.

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Speaker 2: The sketches were impressive, sure, but Udson hadn't submitted all

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Speaker 2: the plans and drawings the competition rules specified. One Australian

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Speaker 2: art critic described his entry as nothing more than a

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Speaker 2: magnificent doodle. What's more, Utson's doodled building overstepped the site's boundaries.

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Speaker 1: Then there was the question of.

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Speaker 2: Whether its glorious sail like roof structures could actually stand up.

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Speaker 2: None of this worried Eero Saranon, the rock star architect

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Speaker 2: who'd pushed his fellow judges into choosing Utson's entry. Nothing

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Speaker 2: to it, said Saranon, about those roof structures.

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Speaker 3: Three inches thick at the top and say twelve inches

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Speaker 3: thick at the base.

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Speaker 2: But concrete shell architecture was still an emerging field, and

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Speaker 2: many experts weren't so sure. Yes, eggshell structures could be

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Speaker 2: surprisingly strong, but cut the egg in half and much

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Speaker 2: of that.

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Speaker 1: Strength is gone.

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Speaker 2: And Utson's Opera House roof it was a series of

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Speaker 2: quarter shells. Until this point, Utson had taken no engineering advice,

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Speaker 2: and he wouldn't have long to figure out a solution

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Speaker 2: because the project's champion state Premierre Joseph Cahill was a

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Speaker 2: man in a hurry. He was a heavy smoker with

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Speaker 2: a history of health problems. He knew he was also

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Speaker 2: at risk of losing the next election. He wanted a

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Speaker 2: monument to his place in history, so he instructed the

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Speaker 2: Opera House team.

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Speaker 4: Go down to Bedlong Point and make such progress that

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Speaker 4: no one who succeeds me can stop this going through

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Speaker 4: the completion.

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Speaker 2: As a result, the building started before Utson could figure

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Speaker 2: out the structural basics. Joseph Cahill laid the foundation stone

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Speaker 2: on the second of March nineteen fifty nine. Within a year,

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Speaker 2: he was dead, killed by his third heart attack. But

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Speaker 2: just as he had intended, so much work had already

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Speaker 2: been done that stopping the project was unthinkable. By now,

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Speaker 2: an engineer had been found. His name was Over Aruk,

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Speaker 2: the Anglo Danish boss of over A Up and Partners,

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Speaker 2: a respected engineering firm. The two Danes, Utsun and Arup

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Speaker 2: had been working together to try to figure out a

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Speaker 2: solution to the structural problem, and it was at this

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Speaker 2: point that Arup informed Utsun.

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Speaker 1: Of the bad news.

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Speaker 2: His beautiful free standing roofshells simply couldn't be built. Cautionary

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Speaker 2: tales will return in a moment. There's no such thing

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Speaker 2: as too many Danes. So let's meet a third bent Flubia.

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Speaker 2: He's the world's leading expert on large projects and on

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Speaker 2: why these mega projects are so often delivered late and

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Speaker 2: way over budget. And he's fascinated by the Sydney Opera

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Speaker 2: House because it's the ultimate case study, the definitive fiata

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Speaker 2: of how not to run a mega project. Flubia says

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Speaker 2: that the original sin of many mega projects is this

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Speaker 2: people start building before they figured out what they're really

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Speaker 2: trying to do. The ideal mega project starts with a question,

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Speaker 2: why are we doing this? Then there's a long, careful

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Speaker 2: planning process, every detail is finalized. Then the expensive construction

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Speaker 2: phase can be kept as short as possible with no

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Speaker 2: costly changes. The Opera House violated these principles in the

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Speaker 2: most flagrant way imaginable. Nobody ever really answered the question

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Speaker 2: why so. Eugene Goosoms had wanted to accommodate a lot

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Speaker 2: of opera goers and use the beautiful location of Benelong Point.

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Speaker 2: The state's premiere, Joseph Cahill, had wanted a lasting monument

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Speaker 2: on the cheap, without spending taxpayer money. Utson wanted to

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Speaker 2: build something beautiful and new.

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Speaker 1: But what if you couldn't.

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Speaker 2: Make it both beautiful and cheap? What if you couldn't

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Speaker 2: make it big while also squeezing it onto ben long point,

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Speaker 2: the trade offs were swept under the carpet, the difficult

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Speaker 2: decisions postponed or ignored. Then, of course, the building was rushed,

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Speaker 2: with workers digging foundations before Utson and Arup had figured

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Speaker 2: out how to build the thing. Utson was in an

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Speaker 2: impossible position, and Utson wasn't blameless either. Remember how he'd

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Speaker 2: never drawn proper plans for his beautiful home in the

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Speaker 2: Danish forest, but instead had been on site throughout personally

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Speaker 2: directing the builders. Careful planning was all very well, but

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Speaker 2: he loved to experiment, to feel his way through a project.

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Speaker 2: It worked for his beautiful home, but could it also

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Speaker 2: work for a colossal, structurally innovative mega project. Utson worked

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Speaker 2: like an artist, not a project manager. He wanted to

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Speaker 2: make the final decision on every detail, no matter how small.

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Speaker 2: At one point he declared about a particular design change.

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Speaker 3: I don't care what it costs, I don't care what

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Speaker 3: scandal it causes. I don't care how long it takes,

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Speaker 3: that's what I want.

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Speaker 2: That attitude explains why Utson's Opera House is the most

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Speaker 2: beautiful building in the world. It also made him the

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Speaker 2: mother of all bottlenecks, especially as Utzon had a habit

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Speaker 2: of disappearing for weeks at a time. After his second

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Speaker 2: visit to Sydney, Utson decided to return to Denmark via China, Japan,

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Speaker 2: and Nepal. When he finally resurfaced, are Up jovially.

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Speaker 4: It was nice to hear from you. I really thought

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Speaker 4: you were lost in the wilds of Asia.

250
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Speaker 2: Utson had hoped to pick up inspiration on his travels

251
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Speaker 2: that he could use for the Opera House, and he did,

252
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Speaker 2: but decisions on the project ground to a halt without him,

253
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Speaker 2: and the problem of the roof was no joke. Utson's

254
00:18:30,450 --> 00:18:35,810
Speaker 2: original Magnificent Doodle used a variety of different curves that

255
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Speaker 2: caused two headaches. The first was the expense it made

256
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Speaker 2: every section of the roof a unique construction. The second

257
00:18:45,730 --> 00:18:49,170
Speaker 2: was more serious. Arup had to spend a fortune on

258
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Speaker 2: groundbreaking computer simulations to figure out whether they would collapse

259
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Speaker 2: under their own weight. Eventually, Arup concluded that they would.

260
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Speaker 2: It was Utson who solved the problem in a flash

261
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Speaker 2: of inspiration. He realized that each part of each vaulted

262
00:19:09,650 --> 00:19:12,850
Speaker 2: large or small, could be proportioned as though it were

263
00:19:12,890 --> 00:19:18,570
Speaker 2: sliced out of the same single enormous sphere. Doesn't sound

264
00:19:18,610 --> 00:19:22,850
Speaker 2: like much, but the structural properties of these spherical curves

265
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Speaker 2: were well understood, and because the curves would all be identical,

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Speaker 2: they could be built at much lower cost.

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Speaker 1: Utson was delighted.

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Speaker 3: It was the cheapest way of making it you could

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Speaker 3: dream of. All of the work during these three years

270
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Speaker 3: has been the background for arriving at this magnificent solution.

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Speaker 2: If they hadn't yet started construction, this would have been

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Speaker 2: a triumphant moment. Unfortunately, construction had begun two and a

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Speaker 2: half years earlier. The new design would require heavier supports

274
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Speaker 2: than the ones they'd just built, and the ones they'd

275
00:20:06,490 --> 00:20:12,890
Speaker 2: just built were almost indis ructible. The local contractor recommended

276
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Speaker 2: dynamiting them one by one during the rush hour so

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Speaker 2: that the noise would be camouflaged by the traffic. That

278
00:20:20,250 --> 00:20:23,770
Speaker 2: worked for a while until a lump of concrete was

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Speaker 2: blown high over the harbor and landed on a passing ferry.

280
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Speaker 2: Another opera house bungle yelled the local newspapers. Utson had

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Speaker 2: decided to move his office to Sydney to oversee proceedings.

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Speaker 2: That was a good idea, thought RUP's team, until Utson

283
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Speaker 2: told them he'd be traveling again and out of contact

284
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Speaker 2: between Christmas and March.

285
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Speaker 1: Arup begged him not to do this.

286
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Speaker 2: There were so many decisions to be made, and Utson

287
00:20:57,010 --> 00:21:00,330
Speaker 2: was the only person who could make them. But Utson

288
00:21:00,370 --> 00:21:04,210
Speaker 2: agreed only to a long meeting near London's Heathrow Airport

289
00:21:04,530 --> 00:21:07,770
Speaker 2: the day after Christmas to pin down a long list

290
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Speaker 2: of details. Utson was persuaded to hurry the very last

291
00:21:13,010 --> 00:21:17,090
Speaker 2: mile of his journey. While flying from Tahiti to Sydney,

292
00:21:17,450 --> 00:21:22,730
Speaker 2: the DC seven Airliners radio crackled into life with an invitation.

293
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Speaker 2: Her Majesty the Queen was on the Royal Yacht in

294
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Speaker 2: Sydney Harbor and mister Udson was invited to lunch. After touchdown,

295
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Speaker 2: he dashed to the Royal reception. Arab's man on the

296
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Speaker 2: ground wasn't impressed.

297
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Speaker 4: Lo and behold, God appears from heaven.

298
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Speaker 2: Hutson had descended from Tahiti, popped in for lunch with

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Speaker 2: the Queen, and then grumbled. The Aurup engineer.

300
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Speaker 4: In the afternoon, he comes onto the site and starts

301
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Speaker 4: complaining about some things he wasn't informed about. I mean,

302
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Speaker 4: there was no one we could contact.

303
00:22:03,370 --> 00:22:08,090
Speaker 2: Four months later, July nineteen sixty three, the Opera House

304
00:22:08,490 --> 00:22:12,770
Speaker 2: was scheduled to have been finished, yet the site on

305
00:22:12,890 --> 00:22:18,130
Speaker 2: Benelong Point was still just a huge, flat sprawl of concrete.

306
00:22:18,650 --> 00:22:22,210
Speaker 2: The basic outline of the broad low podium was visible,

307
00:22:22,570 --> 00:22:26,090
Speaker 2: with the structure of the two sunken theaters scooped out

308
00:22:26,090 --> 00:22:29,650
Speaker 2: of it. There was no sign of walls, let alone

309
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Speaker 2: the roof. In his history of the project, The Saga

310
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Speaker 2: of Sydney Opera House, architectural writer Peter Murray combs to

311
00:22:40,050 --> 00:22:43,970
Speaker 2: the letters between Uber Arup and Jan Utson and finds

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Speaker 2: two men whose relationship is slowly falling apart. Utson worried

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Speaker 2: that Arup was trying to take control and steal the credit.

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Speaker 2: Arup was eyeing the exits. Here's Arup.

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Speaker 4: I do not know whether you have thought of getting

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Speaker 4: other engineers to help you. I would welcome the idea

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Speaker 4: of someone else solving the problems and sing your method

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Speaker 4: of working.

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Speaker 2: Utsen responded, dear uver, please desist from your criticism.

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Speaker 3: Management is in a way the easiest part of the job,

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Speaker 3: something which most people can learn.

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Speaker 1: Well.

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Speaker 2: Perhaps nobody doubted Utsen's genius as an architect, but as

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Speaker 2: deadline after deadline was being broken, this was no time

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Speaker 2: to be taking management for granted. The mega project expert

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00:23:44,930 --> 00:23:49,210
Speaker 2: Bent Flubier argues that the longer the construction phase of

327
00:23:49,210 --> 00:23:52,970
Speaker 2: a project lasts, the more time there is for something

328
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Speaker 2: to derail everything. He's right. In May nineteen sixty five,

329
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Speaker 2: two years after the Opera House was supposed to have

330
00:24:03,570 --> 00:24:07,850
Speaker 2: been finished, there was a state election in New South Wales.

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00:24:08,890 --> 00:24:13,210
Speaker 2: The backdrop for this election was an expensive and manifestly

332
00:24:13,570 --> 00:24:18,650
Speaker 2: unfinished building. The roofshells had at last been built, soaring

333
00:24:18,730 --> 00:24:21,930
Speaker 2: above the podium and the waters of the harbor, but

334
00:24:22,050 --> 00:24:25,770
Speaker 2: they were bare concrete. The epic job of tiling them

335
00:24:26,050 --> 00:24:30,490
Speaker 2: had hardly begun. The site was open to the elements,

336
00:24:30,890 --> 00:24:34,930
Speaker 2: since the spectacular glass curtain wall facing out over the

337
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Speaker 2: harbor was still just a structural problem on Utson's drawing board,

338
00:24:41,130 --> 00:24:45,010
Speaker 2: and so the populist Opposition party campaigned on a promise

339
00:24:45,330 --> 00:24:50,130
Speaker 2: to clean up the mess at the Opera House. Although

340
00:24:50,130 --> 00:24:53,810
Speaker 2: the project was funded mostly by proceeds from the state lottery,

341
00:24:54,050 --> 00:24:59,010
Speaker 2: rather than taxes. It was hugely over budget, and conservative

342
00:24:59,130 --> 00:25:02,730
Speaker 2: rural voters had started to wonder why that lottery money

343
00:25:02,970 --> 00:25:07,970
Speaker 2: couldn't be spent on something else, such as more roads, schools,

344
00:25:08,130 --> 00:25:13,490
Speaker 2: and hospitals. When the Opposition won, the job of Minister

345
00:25:13,610 --> 00:25:18,130
Speaker 2: for Public Works went to a politician named Davis Hughes.

346
00:25:19,290 --> 00:25:23,610
Speaker 2: Hughes was a controversial choice, and not only because he'd

347
00:25:23,610 --> 00:25:27,690
Speaker 2: recently become notorious for falsely claiming to have a bachelor's

348
00:25:27,690 --> 00:25:31,370
Speaker 2: degree in job applications. When he was put in charge

349
00:25:31,410 --> 00:25:36,010
Speaker 2: of this vast construction project, his wife laughingly remarked that

350
00:25:36,090 --> 00:25:39,770
Speaker 2: he couldn't drive a nail in straight. In the first

351
00:25:39,970 --> 00:25:43,650
Speaker 2: six months of his tenure, Hughes struggled to get a grip.

352
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Speaker 1: To his frustration.

353
00:25:45,170 --> 00:25:50,770
Speaker 2: Spending on the opera house ballooned more than ever. By

354
00:25:50,850 --> 00:25:55,370
Speaker 2: the start of nineteen sixty six, nine years after Utson

355
00:25:55,490 --> 00:25:59,130
Speaker 2: had become famous around the world for winning the design competition,

356
00:25:59,770 --> 00:26:04,810
Speaker 2: Hughes was ready for a showdown. He began withholding payments

357
00:26:04,850 --> 00:26:10,290
Speaker 2: to Utson, demanding more oversight and more control. Without the money,

358
00:26:10,730 --> 00:26:15,770
Speaker 2: Utson couldn't pay his staff. He was already in financial

359
00:26:15,770 --> 00:26:20,250
Speaker 2: trouble because both Denmark and Australia were arguing that he

360
00:26:20,290 --> 00:26:24,650
Speaker 2: should be paying his taxes to them. Was Davis Hughes

361
00:26:24,810 --> 00:26:31,050
Speaker 2: deliberately undermining Utson or was he imposing some much needed discipline.

362
00:26:31,130 --> 00:26:36,170
Speaker 2: Whatever the aim, the result was predictable. Whover Aup could

363
00:26:36,170 --> 00:26:39,210
Speaker 2: see what was coming. He wrote to Utson urging him

364
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Speaker 2: not to resign, telling him that resigning would solve nothing.

365
00:26:43,530 --> 00:26:47,370
Speaker 2: But Arab's letter didn't arrive in time to warn Utson

366
00:26:47,570 --> 00:26:51,530
Speaker 2: to be careful what he said. After a tense meeting

367
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Speaker 2: with Hughes, Utson sent a letter explaining that by cutting

368
00:26:55,490 --> 00:26:59,050
Speaker 2: off the money, you have forced me to leave the job.

369
00:27:00,690 --> 00:27:03,970
Speaker 2: Hutson later said that he was just pausing work for

370
00:27:04,050 --> 00:27:07,450
Speaker 2: lack of funds and that quitting was never his intention,

371
00:27:08,570 --> 00:27:14,290
Speaker 2: But Davis Hughes didn't see any ambiguity. He promptly announced

372
00:27:14,330 --> 00:27:22,450
Speaker 2: to the State Assembly that Jorn Utson had resigned. Cautionary

373
00:27:22,490 --> 00:27:32,370
Speaker 2: tales will return in a moment. Utson's departure was announced

374
00:27:32,410 --> 00:27:36,810
Speaker 2: on the first of March nineteen sixty six, almost exactly

375
00:27:37,170 --> 00:27:42,650
Speaker 2: seven years after construction had begun. Despite all the project's troubles,

376
00:27:43,370 --> 00:27:44,290
Speaker 2: it was a bombshell.

377
00:27:45,690 --> 00:27:46,170
Speaker 1: By now.

378
00:27:46,450 --> 00:27:51,330
Speaker 2: The curved shells were almost fully tiled. The shimmering effect

379
00:27:51,530 --> 00:27:57,090
Speaker 2: looked spectacular. Protesters gathered at the half finished structure on

380
00:27:57,170 --> 00:28:02,250
Speaker 2: Benelong Point, waving signs save the Opera House and we

381
00:28:02,330 --> 00:28:07,850
Speaker 2: need Utson. The Royal Australian Institute of Architects told Davis

382
00:28:07,930 --> 00:28:13,290
Speaker 2: Hughes him back. No prominent architect would touch the Opera

383
00:28:13,290 --> 00:28:17,490
Speaker 2: House project after Utson's acrimonious departure. It was a matter

384
00:28:17,570 --> 00:28:24,410
Speaker 2: of professional solidarity. The engineer Uber Aup did not resign.

385
00:28:25,610 --> 00:28:30,570
Speaker 2: Utson saw this as a betrayal. He stopped returning. Arab's

386
00:28:30,610 --> 00:28:35,290
Speaker 2: calls up Hand wrote an emotional letter to Utson, urging

387
00:28:35,370 --> 00:28:37,730
Speaker 2: him to come back and offering to broke her a

388
00:28:37,770 --> 00:28:42,170
Speaker 2: compromise with Davis Hughes. Couldn't Uber and Yawn at least

389
00:28:42,210 --> 00:28:44,930
Speaker 2: meet for a chat, he signed off.

390
00:28:45,330 --> 00:28:48,650
Speaker 4: Even if you don't trust me, it couldn't do any harm,

391
00:28:48,650 --> 00:28:51,890
Speaker 4: could it. The situation can't get any worse, so why

392
00:28:51,930 --> 00:28:52,450
Speaker 4: not try?

393
00:28:53,650 --> 00:28:55,650
Speaker 1: Utson replied the same day.

394
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Speaker 3: If you think I should be in charge of the project,

395
00:28:59,010 --> 00:29:02,770
Speaker 3: then act accordingly, he wrote. Tell the Minister that Utson

396
00:29:02,970 --> 00:29:04,810
Speaker 3: must be in charge.

397
00:29:05,130 --> 00:29:09,610
Speaker 2: Utson returned to Denmark, still thinking about all the remaining

398
00:29:09,690 --> 00:29:12,810
Speaker 2: challenges on the project, such as how to fit more

399
00:29:12,850 --> 00:29:17,770
Speaker 2: seats into the hall. He expected that Davis Hughes would

400
00:29:17,770 --> 00:29:22,290
Speaker 2: come crawling back, in part because he couldn't imagine anyone

401
00:29:22,290 --> 00:29:24,690
Speaker 2: else being capable of finishing the job.

402
00:29:25,930 --> 00:29:29,050
Speaker 3: I am still available. It is not I, but the

403
00:29:29,090 --> 00:29:32,210
Speaker 3: Sydney Opera House that creates all of the enormous difficulties.

404
00:29:33,770 --> 00:29:37,730
Speaker 2: But Davis Hughes wasn't the type to back down. If

405
00:29:37,770 --> 00:29:41,250
Speaker 2: no prominent architect would take the job, it just had

406
00:29:41,250 --> 00:29:44,570
Speaker 2: to get one nobody had heard of. He called in

407
00:29:44,610 --> 00:29:48,970
Speaker 2: a young local government architect named Peter Hall and handed

408
00:29:49,090 --> 00:29:53,090
Speaker 2: him the task of finishing the opera House. All did so,

409
00:29:54,050 --> 00:29:58,450
Speaker 2: taking seven more years and three times as much money

410
00:29:58,570 --> 00:30:03,690
Speaker 2: as had already been spent. The Opera House cost fifteen

411
00:30:03,930 --> 00:30:08,570
Speaker 2: times the original budget. Admittedly, the original budget was always

412
00:30:08,610 --> 00:30:13,290
Speaker 2: a fiction, and it was completed a decade behind schedule.

413
00:30:14,690 --> 00:30:19,250
Speaker 2: Jorn Utsen wasn't the type to back down either. Years later,

414
00:30:19,850 --> 00:30:23,370
Speaker 2: Uva Arup asked a mutual friend to try to arrange

415
00:30:23,370 --> 00:30:27,890
Speaker 2: a reconciliation. Maybe he and Utson could meet and talk

416
00:30:27,930 --> 00:30:33,330
Speaker 2: things over. They drove to Utson's hometown and Arup sat

417
00:30:33,370 --> 00:30:39,330
Speaker 2: in a hotel lobby, nursing a coffee and waiting. The

418
00:30:39,410 --> 00:30:45,090
Speaker 2: friend returned. Utson didn't want to see arup. There would

419
00:30:45,090 --> 00:30:53,570
Speaker 2: be no reconciliation. The opera House was officially opened by

420
00:30:53,650 --> 00:31:00,210
Speaker 2: Queen Elizabeth on the twentieth of October nineteen seventy three.

421
00:31:00,370 --> 00:31:05,090
Speaker 2: Jorn Utson declined his invitation to attend, which was perhaps

422
00:31:05,610 --> 00:31:10,290
Speaker 2: just as well. The Queen's speech, written by local politicians,

423
00:31:10,850 --> 00:31:16,010
Speaker 2: didn't mention Utson's name. The plaque she unveiled celebrated young

424
00:31:16,090 --> 00:31:24,650
Speaker 2: Peter Hall and Davis Hughes. In his book How Big

425
00:31:24,690 --> 00:31:29,850
Speaker 2: Things Get Done, Bent Flubier describes what happened when star

426
00:31:30,210 --> 00:31:33,850
Speaker 2: architect Frank Geary was asked to come to bill Bao

427
00:31:34,090 --> 00:31:38,530
Speaker 2: to work on a building. Unlike the young, unknown Utson,

428
00:31:39,050 --> 00:31:43,690
Speaker 2: Geary was sixty two years old, battle hardened by some

429
00:31:43,850 --> 00:31:49,890
Speaker 2: painful political fights over his buildings, and famous Bill Boo's

430
00:31:49,930 --> 00:31:54,130
Speaker 2: officials showed him a beautiful old warehouse, and they asked

431
00:31:54,210 --> 00:31:57,170
Speaker 2: him if he would consider renovating it to become a

432
00:31:57,250 --> 00:32:03,770
Speaker 2: new Guggenheim Museum. Why, asked Geary, what are you trying

433
00:32:03,810 --> 00:32:09,890
Speaker 2: to achieve? In Sydney, nobody had really formulated those questions,

434
00:32:10,130 --> 00:32:14,410
Speaker 2: let alone answered them, But in Bilbao they knew what

435
00:32:14,450 --> 00:32:19,370
Speaker 2: they wanted. They wanted to get by design what Sydney

436
00:32:19,730 --> 00:32:24,970
Speaker 2: had got by accident, an icon. Bill Bao was the

437
00:32:25,010 --> 00:32:29,770
Speaker 2: Detroit of Southern Europe, a once great city ravaged by

438
00:32:29,850 --> 00:32:34,570
Speaker 2: the industrialization. The local government wanted the new museum to

439
00:32:34,690 --> 00:32:38,770
Speaker 2: spark an urban renaissance, to put Bilbao on the map,

440
00:32:39,090 --> 00:32:43,250
Speaker 2: just as Sydney Opera House had put Sydney on the map. Fine,

441
00:32:43,730 --> 00:32:49,770
Speaker 2: said Geary. In that case, forget the renovation project. You're

442
00:32:49,770 --> 00:32:52,210
Speaker 2: going to have to do what Sydney did and build

443
00:32:52,210 --> 00:32:55,530
Speaker 2: something breath taking and new. You're going to have to

444
00:32:55,570 --> 00:32:59,250
Speaker 2: put it on the waterfront. And in fact, added Geary,

445
00:33:00,170 --> 00:33:05,690
Speaker 2: I've seen just the spot. When Geary's Guggenheim Bilbao was

446
00:33:05,770 --> 00:33:10,450
Speaker 2: finally opened, it was a huge success, on time and

447
00:33:11,010 --> 00:33:16,530
Speaker 2: under budget. According to Flubiere's data on mega projects, that

448
00:33:16,650 --> 00:33:20,330
Speaker 2: sort of thing doesn't happen a lot. But the fact

449
00:33:20,330 --> 00:33:23,730
Speaker 2: that it happened at all is because Geary started with

450
00:33:23,810 --> 00:33:29,090
Speaker 2: a clearly agreed plan and nobody rushed to start digging.

451
00:33:32,850 --> 00:33:37,210
Speaker 2: These days, everybody seems to want one of those iconic buildings.

452
00:33:38,010 --> 00:33:41,290
Speaker 2: Frank Geary made it look easy, after all. But the

453
00:33:41,330 --> 00:33:46,090
Speaker 2: Sydney Opera House was the first and the greatest and

454
00:33:46,130 --> 00:33:51,570
Speaker 2: the most painful. In spite of everything, the Opera House

455
00:33:52,010 --> 00:33:55,530
Speaker 2: is a masterpiece. I've been lucky enough to see it,

456
00:33:56,010 --> 00:33:59,490
Speaker 2: to stroll around the Sydney Harbor, admiring all the angles,

457
00:34:00,210 --> 00:34:03,290
Speaker 2: to walk up the grand steps of the podium on

458
00:34:03,370 --> 00:34:09,010
Speaker 2: Benelong Point. I've even performed on the stage. It's breathtaking,

459
00:34:09,770 --> 00:34:14,370
Speaker 2: all of it. No camera can do it justice. In

460
00:34:14,410 --> 00:34:18,690
Speaker 2: the entire twentieth century, only the Empire State Building comes

461
00:34:18,730 --> 00:34:22,090
Speaker 2: close to serving as an icon of a city. The

462
00:34:22,130 --> 00:34:25,090
Speaker 2: Sydney Opera House is like the Eiffel Tower or the Pyramids.

463
00:34:25,730 --> 00:34:28,770
Speaker 2: It's repaid its debt to the citizens of the city

464
00:34:29,210 --> 00:34:33,530
Speaker 2: many times over. So you might think, who cares that

465
00:34:33,610 --> 00:34:36,290
Speaker 2: it was late? Who cares what it cost? It was

466
00:34:36,370 --> 00:34:40,930
Speaker 2: all worth it in the end. But bent Flubieer disagrees.

467
00:34:42,210 --> 00:34:45,930
Speaker 2: The process of building the Opera House was a fiasco,

468
00:34:46,810 --> 00:34:49,490
Speaker 2: and that fiasco had a cost that you can't measure

469
00:34:49,530 --> 00:34:54,170
Speaker 2: in delays or in dollars. The cost starts with Yawn

470
00:34:54,370 --> 00:34:59,890
Speaker 2: Utsen's reputation. Utson was told that because he had resigned,

471
00:35:00,370 --> 00:35:04,490
Speaker 2: he'd never get a government project in Denmark. He taught

472
00:35:04,610 --> 00:35:08,690
Speaker 2: for a while in Hawaii and anonymously designed some buildings

473
00:35:08,690 --> 00:35:12,130
Speaker 2: for a freeh m's architecture practice. He did win a

474
00:35:12,130 --> 00:35:16,450
Speaker 2: commission to design something big in Kuwait, but Saddam Hussein's

475
00:35:16,530 --> 00:35:20,890
Speaker 2: army set fire to that. In nineteen ninety one, in

476
00:35:20,930 --> 00:35:26,570
Speaker 2: a Copenhagen suburb, he built a humbled church. It's unprepossessing

477
00:35:26,610 --> 00:35:30,050
Speaker 2: on the outside, but on the inside there's a gorgeous

478
00:35:30,050 --> 00:35:34,570
Speaker 2: ceiling that looks like folds of cloth parting to reveal

479
00:35:34,770 --> 00:35:38,770
Speaker 2: the light of heaven. Apparently it had something similar in

480
00:35:38,850 --> 00:35:42,610
Speaker 2: mind for the interior of the Opera House, but nobody

481
00:35:42,610 --> 00:35:45,730
Speaker 2: wanted to give him another chance to display his genius

482
00:35:45,770 --> 00:35:49,570
Speaker 2: on the stage. It deserved the price of the Sydney

483
00:35:49,610 --> 00:35:54,570
Speaker 2: Opera House. It was all those other buildings that Jorn

484
00:35:54,730 --> 00:36:02,330
Speaker 2: Utsuen was never allowed to design. Eventually, the architecture profession

485
00:36:02,450 --> 00:36:07,330
Speaker 2: woke up and began showering prizes on him, often acknowledging

486
00:36:07,610 --> 00:36:12,170
Speaker 2: regretfully that Utzon hadn't built much besides the opera House,

487
00:36:13,090 --> 00:36:16,130
Speaker 2: but it was too late to change that. When he

488
00:36:16,210 --> 00:36:21,610
Speaker 2: won architecture's nobel prize, the Pritzker, he was eighty five

489
00:36:21,730 --> 00:36:26,930
Speaker 2: years old. The Opera House itself had started to become

490
00:36:26,970 --> 00:36:31,530
Speaker 2: embarrassed by the controversy and that graceless plaque that didn't

491
00:36:31,530 --> 00:36:36,330
Speaker 2: even mention Utson's name. In the nineteen nineties, they attempted

492
00:36:36,370 --> 00:36:40,490
Speaker 2: a raproschemo, naming a room in his honor and asking

493
00:36:40,570 --> 00:36:45,450
Speaker 2: him to help design a new wing. Still he didn't come.

494
00:36:46,490 --> 00:36:49,810
Speaker 2: He sent his son to give a speech explaining that

495
00:36:49,890 --> 00:36:51,330
Speaker 2: his elderly father.

496
00:36:52,130 --> 00:36:56,330
Speaker 4: Lives and breathes the Opera House, and as its creator,

497
00:36:56,570 --> 00:36:59,330
Speaker 4: he just has to close his eyes to see it.

498
00:37:03,290 --> 00:37:07,730
Speaker 2: One person who sneered at the peacemaking was Davis Hughes,

499
00:37:09,130 --> 00:37:13,130
Speaker 2: old man like Utson himself. He phoned the chairman of

500
00:37:13,170 --> 00:37:16,890
Speaker 2: the Opera House management team and ranted for forty five

501
00:37:16,970 --> 00:37:20,850
Speaker 2: minutes about the very idea of asking Utson his opinion

502
00:37:20,890 --> 00:37:21,690
Speaker 2: on anything.

503
00:37:22,570 --> 00:37:25,450
Speaker 3: I did Utson a favor, he said. I put him

504
00:37:25,450 --> 00:37:27,370
Speaker 3: out of his misery like you put down a dog.

505
00:37:29,410 --> 00:37:34,570
Speaker 2: Late in Utson's life, a British architect named John Pardy

506
00:37:35,170 --> 00:37:37,850
Speaker 2: went to visit him in Mayorka, where he had spent

507
00:37:38,130 --> 00:37:40,970
Speaker 2: most of his later years. It was a kind of

508
00:37:41,050 --> 00:37:44,610
Speaker 2: pilgrimage to meet one of the true greats of architecture.

509
00:37:45,650 --> 00:37:50,490
Speaker 2: Utson had designed the home, of course, and Pardy described.

510
00:37:49,970 --> 00:37:55,690
Speaker 4: Its Glarefrey hush that seemed to transport me to another world.

511
00:37:56,410 --> 00:38:00,850
Speaker 2: They talked about this and that the old man expressed

512
00:38:00,930 --> 00:38:03,690
Speaker 2: the occasional pain at the Opera House affair.

513
00:38:04,370 --> 00:38:08,010
Speaker 3: But this was all a long time.

514
00:38:07,810 --> 00:38:09,530
Speaker 1: Ago, he said.

515
00:38:10,650 --> 00:38:15,410
Speaker 2: Utson had never been back to Sydney. He'd designed the

516
00:38:15,450 --> 00:38:19,970
Speaker 2: most beautiful building of the twentieth century, and he had

517
00:38:20,010 --> 00:38:25,250
Speaker 2: never seen it. Sensing that Utson had left some part

518
00:38:25,330 --> 00:38:29,090
Speaker 2: of his heart in Sydney, Pardy offered to help the

519
00:38:29,170 --> 00:38:35,490
Speaker 2: old man travel back. Utson's wife pulled Pardy aside. That

520
00:38:36,010 --> 00:38:41,170
Speaker 2: wasn't possible. She said it would kill him. Did she

521
00:38:41,290 --> 00:38:45,650
Speaker 2: mean the arduous journey or did she mean the memories.

522
00:38:55,410 --> 00:38:59,410
Speaker 2: Important sources for this episode were The House by Helen

523
00:38:59,530 --> 00:39:04,250
Speaker 2: Pitt and the Saga of Sydney Opera House by Peter Murray.

524
00:39:04,410 --> 00:39:07,690
Speaker 2: If you're interested in Bent, Flubier and mega projects, I

525
00:39:07,770 --> 00:39:11,850
Speaker 2: have a three Parts is on the V two Rocket program.

526
00:39:12,050 --> 00:39:16,690
Speaker 2: It's available to subscribers on pushkin Plus. For a full

527
00:39:16,730 --> 00:39:19,250
Speaker 2: list of our sources, please see the show notes at

528
00:39:19,370 --> 00:39:25,690
Speaker 2: Timharford dot com. Cautionary Tales is written by me Tim

529
00:39:25,770 --> 00:39:29,650
Speaker 2: Harford with Andrew Wright. It's produced by Alice Fines with

530
00:39:29,770 --> 00:39:33,770
Speaker 2: support from Edith Ruslow. The sound design and original music

531
00:39:34,170 --> 00:39:38,850
Speaker 2: is the work of Pascal Wise. Sarah Nix edited the scripts.

532
00:39:40,050 --> 00:39:44,770
Speaker 2: Cautionary Tales features the voice talents of rufus Wright, Melanie Guttridge,

533
00:39:44,930 --> 00:39:50,050
Speaker 2: Ben Crowe, Stella Harford and Jemma Saunders. The show wouldn't

534
00:39:50,090 --> 00:39:53,970
Speaker 2: have been possible without the work of Jacob Weisberg, Ryan Dilly,

535
00:39:54,290 --> 00:40:00,170
Speaker 2: Greta Cohene, Leitel Millard, John Schnaz, Carlie mcgliori and Eric Sandler.

536
00:40:00,410 --> 00:40:04,050
Speaker 2: Cautionary Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. It was

537
00:40:04,090 --> 00:40:07,930
Speaker 2: recorded in Wardall Studios in London by Tom Berry. If

538
00:40:07,970 --> 00:40:10,810
Speaker 2: you like the show, please remember to share, rate and

539
00:40:10,930 --> 00:40:13,610
Speaker 2: review go on you know it helps us and if

540
00:40:13,650 --> 00:40:16,450
Speaker 2: you want to hear the show ad free, sign up

541
00:40:16,610 --> 00:40:20,010
Speaker 2: for Pushkin Plus on the show page in Apple Podcasts

542
00:40:20,170 --> 00:40:23,450
Speaker 2: or at pushkin dot fm, slash plus