The Design They Fished From the Reject Pile

In 1956, the judges evaluating entries for a new opera house in Sydney, Australia, had already sorted through most of the 233 submissions. Jørn Utzon's radical design — with its soaring white shells rising from the harbor like unfurled sails — landed in the discard pile. Too strange. Too ambitious. Probably unbuildable. It would have stayed there, forgotten, if architect Eero Saarinen hadn't arrived late to the judging panel.…