Planning fallacy
The Sydney Opera House was expected to be completed in 1963. A scaled-down version opened in 1973, a decade later. The original cost was estimated at $7 million, but its delayed completion led to a cost of $102 million.
Joseph Cahill
On 5 February 1959, Cahill signed the contract for the first stage of building works for the Opera House with the Chairman of Lendlease Corporation and Civil & Civic, Dick Dusseldorp, and the managing director of Brederos, Jan de Vries. On the occasion of the official start of building and the laying of the foundation plaque on 2 March 1959, Cahill declared that the Sydney Opera House, "will stand not merely as an outstanding example of modern architecture or even as a world famous opera house, but as a shrine in which the great artists of the world may be seen and heard and our own artists may display the flowering of Australian culture."