Chapter 4: Cahill's Political Legacy
The idea of a national opera house moved ahead now with the confidence of a striking sculptural design and all the political expedience the aging Premier could bring in support of it.
Behind the public announcements and scrutiny, the business of practically advancing the winning scheme began.
It was now clear that Utzon's design was chosen for its perceived genius as a concept rather than a ready-to-build structure. The Assessor's Report had described Utzon's submission drawings as being simple to the point of diagrammatic. Saarinen had sketched perspectives of the design for Joe Cahill to display at the National Art Gallery.
The day after Cahill named Utzon winner, the Opera House Committee announced the launch of a public appeal, within two months, to fund the 3,500,000 National Opera House.
Two months was assumed to be enough time for Cahill to get approval from State Caucus for publicly funding of the project. It turned out to be five.
Beginning in 1954, through years of State Labor and Coalition Governments, different Ministers of public works and changes in the programme and architects until beyond its completion in 1973, the Sydney Opera House project was dominated by politics.
The now famously inaccurate 1957 estimated cost of 3.5 million sounds as if it might have been plucked from thin air. Utzon hadn't consulted an engineer prior to making his designs, and with only a series of sketches from which to derive estimates, the surveyor's figure was certain to fall short, and in fact, spectacularly so. The final cost of Sydney Opera House in 1973 was $102 million Australian dollars, more than 14 times the original estimate.
Within days of Cahill's announcement, news of the winning design was published around the world. In London, after reading the announcement in The Times, Ove Arup wrote Utzon to congratulate him and offer the services of his firm Ove Arup and Partners.
Arup has been described as a master builder of the twentieth century and was in 1957 already an accomplished engineer who had founded Ove Arup and Partners, which emerged as one of the world's leading engineering firms, as it is to this day.
The collaboration and friendship between Utzon and Arup is a key to the story of the opera house. And, particularly for the paternal figure of Ove Arup, the lamentable outcome would be defining.
Two days after Arup penned his letter, Jørn Utzon flew to London and met with the competition judges, Leslie Martin and Eero Saarinen, to discuss the way forward.
On Martin's recommendation, Utzon should accept personal responsibility for developing the programme, but be assisted by an engineering firm to develop the complicated vaulting and shell work.
Martin suggested Ove Arup and Partners for the engineering, and introduced Jørn and Ove for the first time. Weeks later Utzon agreed to work with Arup.
Ove Arup would, until 1962, be deeply involved in the design, engineering and construction of the opera house. It was Arup who initially divided the programme into 3 stages and who designed the distinctive concourse beams of the podium, known as Stage 1 in the construction history of the opera house.
In Sydney, the political wrangling to approve the building of Sydney Opera House would continue for five months until, on July 3rd, the State Parliamentary Caucus voted overwhelmingly in favour of building the winning design with public funds, to be raised by lottery four times a year.
Cahill's determination to provide his people with a home for culture, had been a politically long bow to draw and, despite his many achievements as Premier, it was this project for which Cahill would be most remembered.
