Can You Tell Me About The Planning For The Sydney Opera House?

           Probably no other single building in the world has ever consumed so many thousands of hours of computer calculations as the Sydney Opera House. In fact, after the design was selected, engineers spent about three years figuring out how to build it. Some 16 years from the design stage, the Sydney Opera House was officially opened on October 20, 1973.

           
           Situated on a finger of land projecting into beautiful Sydney harbour, the complex resembles a flurry of 10 huge glistening white shells that stand on end to the height of a 22-story building. The mouths of the shells are closed by massive walls of amber-coloured (topaz) glass—2,000 panes in 700 different sizes. The four-and-a-half-acre (1.8-hectare) area contains four main performance halls, two restaurants, a library, a reception hall, an exhibition hall, all the needed rehearsal and dressing rooms, administrative offices and storage areas— that's about 900 rooms in all!