Jorn again
The Sydney Opera House has always struck me as an especially appropriate icon for post-war Australia.
As you can , it's a structure of multiple entendres: a reminder both of the country's outward-looking internationalism (the New South Wales government held an international competition to find an architect) and its narrow-minded parochialism (the winner, Jorn Utzon, was famously replaced by a local architect following a dispute over cost over-runs).
In its inception are elements of our old friend the cultural cringe (a Danish architect, Utzon, was selected at the instigation of another international architect, Eero Saarinen); but also cultural self-confidence (what epic vision from the New South Wales premier of the time to think that the site of an old tram shed would one day accommodate one of modern architecture's most glorious landmarks).
It was built with the help of new arrivals from southern Europe, funded by lottery money and opened by the Queen in a ceremony which also featured an Aboriginal actor who appeared atop the highest shell.
Three weeks before the opening celebrations, Rolf Harris performed the first concert. He opened with the specially-composed Come to the Sydney Opera House, which was truly dreadful, but redeemed himself later on in the concert with Two Little Boys, Jake the Peg, and, of course, Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport ("it was an incredible thing [that song] because it proved to me... that you can be Australian and be a success," Rolf told the audience that night).
The troubled story of one of the world's most charismatic buildings is oft-told and suitably operatic, and the latest act involves the attempts to gain funding for much-needed backstage improvements. While those renovations take place, the SOH also wants to realise one of Utzon's original visions for the opera theatre.
The price tag is a cool $A600m (£300m) - and that is probably a conservative estimate - and Kevin Rudd has indicated already that the money would be better spent on schools. What do you think?
The Opera House has a habit of monopolising architectural attention, but even without it, Sydney's skyline would be spectacular. There are and the Italian "starchitect" , which references and compliments the Opera House. There is the fabulous art deco of the in Hyde Park along with various colonial gems, from the to the .
Often, Olympic cities are endowed with some breath-taking games-related structures. Sadly, Sydney missed out on that front, and Homebush, as Olympic Park is popularly known, is unloved by most Sydneysiders - although its train station is a winner.
Obviously, there are riches elsewhere. Adelaide, the "city of churches", probably has the country's best ecclesiastical architecture, not least St Peter's Cathedral which towers over the Adelaide Oval (which, itself, is an architectural gem, though not for much longer if they go ahead with plans to tear down the . Then there is the city's elegant Northern Terrace, the Nineteenth century wings of in particular.
Along with some fabulous civic and state buildings, and some Seidler skyscrapers, Brisbane has some striking new buildings, like the by one of Australia's most prolific architectural practices, Denton, Corker, Marshall. , the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, is winning international acclaim.
Architecturally, Perth has never quite done it for me, although the early 1960s is arguably one of the best modernist buildings in the country - having survived an attempt in the 1990s to demolish it.
As for Canberra, there are some who think that the new Parliament House looks like a chemistry experiment, but it has always worked for me - especially from the sky where you can appreciate its boomerang styling. The new is a very stylish addition to the capital.
Clearly, you have to get out of the cities to savour some of Australia's finest architecture, from which blend so seamlessly with the landscape they occupy, to
Without reviving and revisiting all the usual civic rivalries, Melbourne is surely Australia's most complete architectural city. Flush with all that 19th Century century gold, it's no surprise that two of its finest buildings are the . There's a lot of Gothic Revival (St Paul's Cathedral), Venetian gothic (the Rialto Building), French-influence (Princess Theatre), Roman revival (Fitzroy Town Hall), Edwardian baroque (Melbourne City Baths and Flinders Street Station), exotic (the Forum Theatre), Spanish (the conservatory in Fitzroy Gardens) modern Gothic (), art deco and lots of European modernism, which was brought to the city by a lot of European émigrés.
The modern stuff is really strong, from the Exhibition Centre and Melbourne Museum, both of which were designed by Denton, Corker, Marshall, and, more controversially, Federation Square. The is very funky as is , which was designed by the British architect, Nicholas Grimshaw. And what of Melbourne's new .
But I digress. So back to the original question. Should Utzon's original vision for the Opera House finally be realised? Or is Kevin Rudd right, and the money is better on an "educational revolution" rather than an architectural rehabilitation?
UPDATE: A final word on the saintly Cate Blanchett. Having waited nine months for the chance to see her in A Streetcar Named Desire, I happened to be in the audience when she got biffed on the head by a flying prop and had to retire hurt, a cultural casualty...
I'm 
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