March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Late Danish architect Joern Utzon, who designed the Sydney Opera House, was honored today with a state memorial service in the waterfront building he never visited.

Aboriginal dancers performed a traditional smoking ceremony at dawn to welcome Utzon’s family before a service that saw performances by the Sydney Symphony orchestra and a reading from Shakespeare by actress Cate Blanchett.

“The opera house has come to be recognized throughout the world as one of the defining symbols of Sydney and Australia,” Arts Minister Peter Garrett said in a speech. “As a nation today we pause to say thank you to Joern Utzon for giving form to a shared vision for modern Australia.”

Utzon spent more than 10 years working on the World Heritage-listed building, only to leave the project amid wrangling with the New South Wales state government. He never returned to Australia to see his project completed. He died in Copenhagen on Nov. 29, 2008, aged 90.

Utzon’s design for the opera house was selected in 1957 after a worldwide competition.

The structure is located on a platform podium for which Utzon found inspiration in the Mayan building culture. The 1.82- hectare (4.5-acre) building includes five halls with some 5,500 combined seats for opera, ballet, theater and concerts.

Construction proved more expensive and time-consuming than planned and total costs, financed through a lottery, exceeded A$100 million ($70 million), some 15 times the original budget.

Relations Soured

Relations soured between Utzon and Australian government officials. Davis Hughes, then-state minister for public works, denied Utzon permission in 1966 to build plywood prototypes for the opera house’s interior design.

Utzon resigned and left Australia. When Queen Elizabeth II opened the building in 1973, Utzon had taken a position teaching at the University of Hawaii.

The building is among the United Nations’ 878 World Heritage cultural and natural sites. The UN called it a “great architectural work of the 20th century” that has had an “enduring influence” on architecture when the building was added to the heritage list in June 2007.

The service was attended by Utzon’s son Jan and daughter Lin.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 25, 2009 01:45 EDT