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COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Joern Utzon, the Danish architect who designed the iconic Sydney Opera House, has died. He was 90.
Utzon died from a heart attack in his sleep early Saturday, surrounded by family members in Denmark, his son, Kim Utzon, told The Associated Press.
“He had not been doing well these past few days, since Thursday. He had been undergoing a series of operations recently,” Kim Utzon said. He declined to give details.
Utzon, who has often been compared to architecture greats such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto of Finland, drew up the design for the opera house in Sydney, Australia, in 1957.
But he quit the project in 1966 – seven years before it was finished – after scandals about cost blowouts and design arguments. Government-appointed architects took over and the interior was not completed to Utzon’s original plan.
Although considered an architectural masterpiece, the Sydney Opera House has been criticized for poor acoustics in the Concert Hall and a lack of performance and backstage space.
The building, with its distinctive white roof shells resembling sails, is perched on the edge of Sydney Harbour.
