Empire State Building And The Sydney Opera House Essay Example

Comparing Empire State Building and the Sydney Opera House

The start of the 20th C was characterized by an increase of construction activity within the New York City or Australia. Such a claim is made with reference to the building of Sydney Opera House and Empire State Building. In New York, structures were built and brought down just some years later to create space for larger buildings. Firms vied and struggled for the tribute to their name on magnificent or the tallest building within New York City and globally. The skyline for Empire State Building became pride, finished with a range of skyscrapers, all distinct in comparison to the earlier structures (Willis & Friedman 1998). The paper compares the theoretical as well as the practical background of Empire State Building (ESB) and Sydney Opera House (SOH).
The initiative of ESB emerged from the competition between Jacob Raskob John of General Motors and Chrysler Walter of the Chrysler Company, to gauge who could raise the taller structure. Walter has already started construction work on the renowned Chrysler Building, which was a glinting 1046-foot skyscraper within midtown Manhattan (Willis & Friedman 1998). Not to be outdone, John assembled or organized a team of renowned investors, involving former Governor of New York, Smith E. Alfred. The team preferred the architecture company Shreve, Harmon and Lamb Associates to plan the construction. The Art-Deco designs, believed to be in large part, the pencil’s look, were as well builder-affable: the entire structure was erected in over a year, with a budget of 40 million dollars. This was ahead of its construction calendar (Willis & Friedman 1998). In some periods of construction, the building grew a surprising over four stories per week.
In comparison, SOH had the idea of its construction at the end of 1940s by actions of Goossens Eugene, the NSW Australia Conservation of Music Director at that era, who lobbied to erect an appropriate venue for magnificent theatrical productions constructed. At the era, Sydney Town Hall was the usual venue for such theatrical productions, but it was not large enough to accommodate people (Sterling & Tunell 1998). By 1954, Eugene succeeded in winning the support of Cahill Joe, the NSW Premier, who called for the plans of an opera house. Eugene also insisted that the site for construction be Bennelong Point. Joe had preferred the building be constructed on or next to the Wynyard Railway Station (WRS), situated within the North-Western CBD of Sydney (Antill & Woodhead 1990). The competition, which Joe organized got two hundred and thirty-three entries. In 955, the basic design submitted by Utzon Jorn was accepted; Utzon was a Danish architect. He arrived in Sydney to supervise the project in the year 1957 (Sterling & Tunell 1998).
Similar to the controversy surrounding the construction of Empire State Building, the history of designing and building Sydney Opera House was controversial. In the year 1956, NSW administration called a public international design competition, besides, appointed an autonomous jury (Shofner 2007). The competition brief offered a wide range of specifications to attract or draw the best talent in the design sector; it did not set an expense limit or identify design parameters. The primary requirement for the competition description was a plan for two theater halls, one for symphony concerts, and the other for opera (Shofner 2007). Allegedly rescued from discarded submissions, Utzon Jorn’s winning entry provoked great interest from the community and the NSW administration’s decision to commission Jorn as the only architect was unanticipated, visionary, and bold. SOH (1957-1973) denotes a masterpiece of modern architecture. The structure is admired globally and treasured by Australian citizens. It was built by a young architect, Jorn Utzon, who recognized and fathomed the potential offered by the site contrary to the surprising backdrop of the harbor (Sydney). Jorn gave Australia a graceful, challenging piece of city sculpture in patterned or properly arranged tiles, gleaming in the sunlight as well as invitingly bright at night.
The Empire State Building architectural drawing were drafted within just two weeks, utilizing the unique designs for the Carew Tower within Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Reynolds structure within Winston-Salem, in North Carolina, as a beginning point. Similar to many structures of that period, it was of ‘Art Deco’ design, which stressed symmetry, bold lines, as well as motifs like chevrons and sunbursts (Berman & Museum of the NYC 2003). Initially, the structure was designed or planned having a flat top. It was slightly taller in comparison to Chrysler Building. In 11th December, of 1929, it was made public that the designer made the decision to put in a 200 foot-high flagstaff, which would moor dirigibles. Upon completion in 1931, Empire State Building became the tallest structure in New York, outdoing the completed Chrysler structure that had maintained the title of the tallest building for not more than two years (Berman & Museum of the NYC 2003). In comparison, the distinctive roof of Sydney Opera House consists of interlocking sets of vaulted ‘shells’ arranged on a wide terraced platform, besides, surrounded by terrace regions, which serve as pedestrian concourses (Empire State Building 2009). The two halls are set next to each other, with their axes, somewhat inclined from one another and running North-South.
At the completion time, the ESB, at 1250 feet high of 102 stories (1454 feet high to the apex of the glinting rod), was the globe’s tallest skyscraper. The construction recruited as many as three thousand four hundred employees on any one day, most of whom got good pay rate or package, particularly given the economic situations of the era. The novel structure imbued NYC with a sense of delight, desperately required in the depths of the global financial crisis, when most town residents were unemployed, besides prospects that looked bleak. The depression’s grip on the economy of New York was still apparent one year later, nevertheless, when just 25% of the Empire rooms had been rented (Tauranac & Kim 2014). In comparison, Sydney Opera House (SOH) was recognized as a globe heritage in 2007. It is a magnificent architectural structure of the 20th C. the structure symbolizes many strands of creativity, in structural design and architectural form, a magnificent town sculpture properly set in an extraordinary waterscape as well as a globe renown iconic structure (Mikami & Murai 2001). The building stands as an indisputable masterpiece or architectural structure of human creativity in 20th C and the humankind history. The project was never in any way assisted by the alterations of the description or brief. Building of the halls was the most challenging engineering assignments ever to be tried. The revolutionary idea demanded equally revolutionary building and engineering techniques or skills. Hornibrook Group (Baulderstone Hornibrook) built the roof shells as well as the interior fit-out and structure. At the demand of the Broadcasting Commission of Australia, the NSW administration altered the proposed bigger opera hall (structure) into the concert venue since at the period, symphony concerts, controlled by the Australian Broadcast Commission, were popular and attracted larger audiences in comparison to opera (Mikami & Murai 2001).
Construction of Empire State Building began on 17th March, of 1930, with the creation of 210 steel columns, 12 of which covered the whole height of the structure. The construction company of SBE worked with a tight timetable. The sooner the structure opened or ready for occupation, the sooner it could begin generating revenue through the collection of rents from tenants (Tauranac & Kim 2014). The constructor utilized many innovative initiatives to speed the construction work. For example, a chute, which permitted blocks to be dropped directly into the underground floor or basement, then dumped into carts as required and hoisted to the floor in which work was done. It kept the environment clear of piles of blocks waiting to be utilized and eliminating the tedious task of moving blocks around the construction site, using wheelbarrow (Kingwell 2008). Upon completion of the structure, it stood as the tallest structure in the globe and the tallest artificial frame of any type. In 1953, it lost the designation of the tallest artificial frame when the GTT within Oklahoma was finished.
In comparison, the design and construction of Sydney Opera House were closely intertwined. Jorn's radical method to the construction fostered an innovative environment and exceptional collaborative. The design and erection of the structure (SOH) took 8 years to finish. The creation of the distinctive ceramic tiles took more than 3 years. On the contrary, it took seven million man-hours (time span) to finish the three hundred and sixty-five thousand ton structure. The building rose 4.5 stories in a week. In the construction, three thousand four hundred employees practicing 60 trades were engaged. Laborers utilized fifty-seven thousand tons of steel within the building and installed six thousand, five hundred windows. If one had to walk up, she/he would climb the one thousand, eight hundred and sixty steps, which were arranged to reach the last floor (102 floor) (Kingwell 2008). The construction of Empire State Building was finished in 1 year and 45 days for a budget of 40948900 dollars. It was completed on time as well as for approximately 10 million dollars less than anticipated (primarily due to depressed labor expenses caused by the global financial crisis of that era). The ESB officially opened on 1st May, 1931, with President Hoover Herbert glinting up the loom remotely from Washington (Kingwell 2008).
The completion and opening of Sydney Opera House was characterized by cost overruns because of populist criticism as well as the state’s administration change leading to resignation of Utzon in 1966, professional controversy, and public demonstrations (Watson 2013). Hall Peter supported by Todd Lionel and Littlemore David in collaboration with NSW Government Architect of that time, Farmer Ted, finished the glass walls as well as interiors involving adding three earlier unplanned venues below the concert venue on the western wing. Sydney Opera House was in the year 1973 by Queen. The new works were carried out between 1986-1988 under the supervision of Andrew Anderson, the then architect of NSW Government (Watson 2013).

Empire State Building (Source: Willis & Friedman 1998)

Sydney Opera House (Source: Watson 2013)

List of References

Antill, J. M., & Woodhead, R. W 1990. Critical path methods in construction practice, Wiley, New York.
Berman, J. S., & Museum of the City of New York 2003. The Empire State Building, Barnes and Noble Books, New York.
Empire State Building 2009. IMinds, Mosman.
Kingwell, M 2008. The nearest thing to heaven: The Empire State Building and American dreams, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Mikami, Y., & Murai, O 2001. Utzon's sphere: Sydney Opera House--how it was designed and built, Shokokusha Tokyo, Tokyo.
Shofner, S 2007. Sydney Opera House, Creative Education, Mankato, MN.
Sterling, M. E., & Tunell, K 1998. The seventies: Challenging, Teacher Created Materials, Huntington Beach, CA.
Tauranac, J., & Kim, S 2014. The empire state building: The making of a landmark.
Watson, A. 2013. Building a masterpiece: the Sydney Opera House. Powerhouse Publishing.
Willis, C., & Friedman, D. 1998. Building the Empire State, W.W. Norton in association with the Skyscraper Museum, New York.