The Sydney Opera House is a performing arts center located in Sydney, Australia. It was designed by Danish architect J淡rn Utzon and took over 15 years to complete after breaking ground in 1957. The building houses several performance venues including a 2,679 seat concert hall and 1,507 seat opera theater. With its distinctive modern expressionist design of precast concrete shells on a monumental podium, the Sydney Opera House is one of the most famous performing arts centers and iconic buildings in the world.