As one of the most popular visitor attractions in Australia, the website is visited by over eight million people annually, and approximately 350,000 visitors take a guided tour of the building each year. Performances are presented by numerous performing artists, including three resident companies: Opera Australia, the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The construction comprises multiple performance venues, which together host well over 1,500 performances annually, attended by over 1.2 million people. The government's decision to construct Utzon's design is often overshadowed by conditions that followed, including cost and scheduling overruns as well as the architect's ultimate resignation.The building and its surrounds occupy all of Bennelong Point on Sydney Harbour, between Sydney Cove and Farm Cove, adjacent to the Sydney central business district and the Royal Botanic Gardens, and close by the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The Government of New South Wales, led by the premier, Joseph Cahill, authorised work to start in 1958 with Utzon directing construction. It is among the 20th century's most famous and distinctive buildings.Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, but completed by an Australian architectural group headed up by Peter Hall, the building was officially opened on 20 October 1973 after a gestation beginning with Utzon's 1957 choice as winner of an international design competition. The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts Center at Sydney Harbour in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to become the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years until the Chrysler Building in New York City was completed in 1930. Its base is square, measuring 125 metres (410 ft) on each side. The tower is 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey construction, and also the tallest structure in Paris. The Eiffel Tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world 6.91 million people ascended it in 2015. It's named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose firm designed and built the tower.Ĭonstructed from 1887 to 1889 as the entrance to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by a number of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but it has become a worldwide cultural icon of France and one of the most recognisable structures on the planet. The Eiffel Tower ( EYE-f?l French: tour Eiffel (listen)) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France.