He became famous when he won the international design competition in 1983 for the construction of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, which was inaugurated on July 14, 1989 (bicentennial of the French Revolution).
Shortly after graduation, he received a Fulbright Scholarship and went to study at the University of Hawaii and graduated with a Masters in Architecture and Urban Design from Washington University's School of Architecture (now Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts) in 1972.
[2] From 1979 until 1983, Ott served Cadillac Fairview Corporation as architect responsible for commercial and multi-purpose projects in Canada.
[7] From 1983 to 1993, he joined NORR Partnership Ltd, located in Toronto, the largest Canadian firm, as partner, heading the Design and Architecture Division.
When Ott returned to Dubai three years later, he learned that his contact had been fired and that another firm was proceeding with a modified version of his design.
'"[9] In 1983, Ott won the international design competition for the Opera de la Bastille in Paris, France, to commemorate the 200-year anniversary of the French Revolution on July 14, 1989.
Ott was selected from 744 participants as one of the three finalists and then hand-picked by French President François Mitterrand as the winner of this prestigious project.
[4] In order to carry out the supervision of this project, he took a leave of absence from NORR, moved to Paris and formed a team of French architects.
[10] Ott joined the team designing and building the Canadian Broadcasting Centre project in downtown Toronto.
[13] Ten years later, in 2003, it was announced that Ott's design would be constructed as the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Federal Courts Building.
In 1993, Carlos Ott won several other competitions in Europe such as the Salle de Spectacles (Espace François-Mitterrand)[17] in Mont-de-Marsan, France and the Thomson Headquarters Building, Offices and Laboratories in Geneva, Switzerland.
From this new office, he completed projects such as the International Airport of Laguna del Sauce (Punta del Este, Uruguay);[18] the International Airport of Ushuaia-Malvinas Argentinas (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina);[19] the Punta Shopping Centre (Punta del Este, Uruguay);[20] Torre Antel, the new headquarters for the state-owned telecommunications company ANTEL (Montevideo, Uruguay);[21] the Libertad Plaza Building (Buenos Aires, Argentina); the Comandante Armando Tola International Airport (El Calafate, Provincia de Santa Cruz, Argentina);[22] among others.
In 1997, he was invited to participate in the competition for the Jiang Su Opera House in Nanjing, China where he obtained first prize.
As a result, he was invited into another series of very important competitions such as the Beijing Opera House, the Commercial and Residential GW Plaza, and won the contract for the National Grand Theater of Hangzhou, China.
As described by Ott, "the concept was to make an iconic sculpture that defied the laws of gravity situating the different blocks in different positions, which in addition created unique views from each space".
When asked about The Proscenium project for Rockwell in The Philippines, Ott remarked "If they expect a shoebox building from me, they will be disappointed.