Noting the Winning Design

There is no precise record of how the winning design was finally chosen, and accounts vary as to the extent to which Saarinen was insistent on the winner.

A popular story is that Saarinen was underwhelmed by the already shortlisted entrants, and pulled Utzon’s entry out of a pile of rejected schemes, exclaiming that it was easily the winning design.

The anecdote is likely to have been at least close to the truth. Saarinen’s enthusiasm for Utzon’s design was directly related to a commission he’d been working on for what would become his most famous building, the TWA Passenger Terminal at what is now known as John F Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York.

Although none of the judges would have supported a design they were not enthusiastic about, Saarinen’s influence – as the most prestigious of the four architects – would have been significant.

The designer of London’s Royal Festival Hall, Sir Leslie Martin, was also particularly enthusiastic about Utzon’s design, with Ashworth and Parkes content to follow the recommendations of the more experienced men.

Their Assessors’ Report read: “We have returned again and again to the study of these drawings and are convinced that they present a concept of an Opera House which is capable of becoming one of the great buildings of the world ... Because of its very originality, it is clearly a controversial design. We are however, absolutely convinced of its merits” (quoted from the bottom of previous page).