Whose Birthday Is It? April 9, 2019

Jørn Utzon (1918)

Utzon was a Danish architect who, in 1957, won a competition to design Australia’s Sydney Opera House, which was completed in 1973 and was declared a World Heritage Site in 2007. Utzon is only the second architect in history to see his work assigned this status during his lifetime. In 1966, after designing the opera house’s distinctive roof—a series of glittering white shell-shaped vaults—and spending nearly a decade on the project, Utzon was forced to resign mid-project. Why? More…