Australian Parliament House

Parliament House in Canberra is the meeting place of the Parliament of Australia and also houses the nation's cabinet room and prime ministerial offices, occupying the southern apex of the National Triangle atop Capital Hill. Construction ran from 1981 to 1988 under the American firm Mitchell, Giurgola and Thorp Architects, led on site by Romaldo Giurgola, whose postmodern design won an international competition of 329 entries and buried most of the building beneath Capital Hill under a crown formed by an 81 meter flagpole. The building contains more than 4,500 rooms across 250,000 square meters and its grass covered roofs, open to public access, were designed to place citizens symbolically above their elected representatives. It opened on 9 May 1988 after an official inauguration by Queen Elizabeth II, though its final cost of 1.1 billion dollars far exceeded the original budget of 220 million.