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 $102 million.
Lafayette Square Opera House
The Lafayette Square Opera House as built by John W. Albaugh, on behalf of the Lafayette Square Opera House Company. It was completed in September 1895 at a cost of 250,000 dollars ($ in present day terms). Located on Madison Place NW, just north of Pennsylvania Avenue, the theater faced Lafayette Square and the White House. The site, originally the home of Commodore John Rodgers, was noted for a history of tragic events and believed to be haunted. It was there that Congressman, later Civil War General, Daniel Sickles killed the district attorney for the District of Columbia, Philip Barton Key II, son of Francis Scott Key. Following the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth's co-conspirator, Lewis Powell, attempted to take the life of Secretary of State William H. Seward, who was living there at the time. The property was later purchased by former Secretary of State James G. Blaine, and it was there that he and two of his children, Walker and Alice, died.