Sydney Opera House - Modern Architecture

The Sydney Opera House is an iconic work of modern architecture, locally and internationally marvelled. It has become of paramount importance to the service and hospitality industry, attracting tourists to the architectural marvel and contributing $775 million to the Australian economy. In this regard, the Sydney Opera House could be argued to be a great success.

However, lack of planning and poor project management affected cost variables and time estimates for the project completion. Furthermore, the time and budget limits were considered lower in priority to the architectural vision, with some calling it the most disastrous construction projects of all time financially. This is because its budget ballooned from $7 million to $102 million and its scheduled time for completion of 4 years ended up being 14 years.

Based on the information above, is the Sydney Opera House a successful or failed project? Based on the iron triangle alone (time, cost, and quality) the Sydney opera house should be deemed a failure, however, years after its completion it is seen as a success. Turner (2009) has identified a set of success criteria for projects which will help to determine if the Sydney Opera House a successful or failed project. Of these nine success criteria, described below only five are deemed to be a success. Turner states 'Overall the project will be successful if it delivers the desired performance improvement or better, at a time and cost that provides value for the organization.' I would then suggest that in the short term, the Sydney Opera House was a failure, however, with the benefit of time, it is now a success.