1. Identify the obvious risks.

The Sydney Opera House (SOH) is a top tourist attraction and landmark for Sydney and all of Australia.
It is a major arts center, although owing to its design, it is not necessarily the best place to hear opera. The SOH is visually spectacular and a magnificent structure (Figure 11.9), but it was a nightmare to design and build.
The original concept for the SOH was a sketch submitted by Danish architect Jorn Utzon.
Judges selected it from an open competition that ended with 233 entries from 11 countries. Though happy to win, Utzon was mildly shocked. The concept that had caught the judges’ attention consisted only of simple sketches, with no plans or even perspective drawings. Utzon faced the challenge of converting the sketches into a design from which a structure could be built, but he had no prior experience in designing and constructing such a large building. Because there were no plans, detailed drawings, or estimates of needed materials, there was little from which to base cost estimates. No one knew how it would be built; some experts questioned that it could be built at all.
Interestingly, because the design was so unique, some people thought it would also be inexpensive to build. The initial cost was estimated at $7 million, to be paid by the government through profits from a series of state-run lotteries.