Sydney Opera House
The cost of the project so far, even in October 1966, was still only $22.9 million, less than a quarter of the final $102 million cost. However, the projected costs for the design were at this stage much more significant.
History of Sydney
A new skyline of concrete and steel skyscrapers swept away much of the old lowrise and often sandstone skyline of early Sydney: Australia Square Tower, constructed in 1967 and designed by modernist architect Harry Seidler became a city landmark, surpassed in 1981 by Sydney Tower ("Centrepoint") as the tallest building in Sydney at 305 m. By the late 1960s, bulldozers were encroaching on The Rocks – European settlement's oldest Sydney precinct – saved only by public protests aimed at preserving 'working class housing' close to the Central Business District (which resulted also in considerable colonial era architecture being preserved in one precinct next to Circular Quay). In 1973, after a long period of planning and construction, the Sydney Opera House was officially opened. The building was from a design by Jørn Utzon. It became a symbol not only of Sydney, but of the Australian nation and was inscribed by UNESCO in 2007.