Peter Hall (architect)
During his early years Hall was the recipient of numerous education scholarships and bursaries, most notably a traineeship and then employment with the office of the New South Wales Government Architect, a source of highly creative architecture during the 1960s.
The Opera House opened in October 1973 and despite its subsequent success as Sydney's most popular performance venue, understanding of the work of Hall and his team has been coloured by the controversial circumstances of their appointment.
For Hall, both personally and professionally, Utzon's legacy was a poisoned chalice – an unprecedented challenge to complete the building to a standard commensurate with its sublime exterior, but one that brought little recognition during his lifetime.
Hall was particularly absorbed by the architecture of the Mediterranean countries and also admired the early work of Jørn Utzon who in 1957 had won the design competition for the Sydney Opera House.
In Denmark Hall included a visit to Utzon's studio in Hellebaek, unsuccessfully seeking short-term work because he could not stay long enough to make his employment worthwhile.
His design for Goldstein Dining Hall at the University of New South Wales won the Royal Australian Institute of Architects’ Sir John Sulman Medal in 1964.
From the announcement of Jørn Utzon's winning Opera House competition entry in January 1957 to the building's opening in October 1973, the project – and its architects, consultants and contractors – were dogged by controversy, political intervention, cost escalations and unprecedented design and technological hurdles.
[1] By the mid-1960s issues of cost, politics, Utzon's relatively unorthodox design methodology, vague user requirements, lack of resolution over the interiors and the slow pace of the project had created a troubling impasse.
Writing later of the dilemma faced by the new architects in 1966, Hall lamented the 'complete lack of a brief and input of user organisations': The job was being built, in effect, without definition of what was expected of it.
The design of the enclosing northern glass walls alone posed unprecedented technical problems which were resolved through the collaboration of Hall and Ove Arup & Partners, the project's structural engineers.
[6] Despite its long and conflicted gestation, since its opening in October 1973 the Opera House has been highly successful – with audiences, performers and visitors and as an inspirational masterpiece of 20th century architecture.
[7] Utzon benefitted in his later career from the building's status but for Hall, who died in impoverished circumstances in 1995, acknowledgment has only come posthumously, due much to the controversial nature of his appointment and a lack of awareness of the complex issues he and his team faced in early 1966.
In the mid 1980s Hall worked on the design of the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House, developing its form, structure, paving and finishes in association with the office of the NSW Government Architect.
Peter Hall died of a stroke on 19 May 1995, his deteriorating health perhaps exacerbated by the rekindling of old controversies in the exhibition, ‘Unseen Utzon’, at the Opera House in late 1994 and early 1995.
At the media launch of the seating design in 1972 he declared ‘I’ve chosen clear, strong colours like the ones Matisse used … Nobody's going to walk through muted, grey interiors here.’[22] Peter Hall befriended and supported many Sydney artists including sculptor Clement Meadmore, whom he had hoped to commission to create the courtyard sculpture for UNSW's Goldstein College, and was friends with the celebrated Sydney photographer Max Dupain, whom he commissioned to record the completed Opera House.
