Sir Jack Zunz obituary
by Elain Harwood from on (#464PB)
Civil engineer who oversaw the completion of the Sydney Opera House and went on to become chair of Ove Arup in London
No roof is more dramatic - or symbolic of a country, as well as a major city - than that of the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Yet it nearly did not happen and it is thanks to Jack Zunz, who has died aged 94, that it did.
The young Danish architect Jirn Utzon had won a competition in 1957 with a scheme resembling a Mayan temple topped by petal-like shell roofs, which could be enjoyed from any angle, since the opera house's exposed promontory site has no back and is overlooked from the Sydney harbour bridge and the Rocks. He desperately needed an engineer to realise such a unique vision.
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