In spite of its revolutionary approach to design and construction, the industrial legacy of the Sydney Opera House has never been the subject of systematic analysis. Whilst celebrating the genius of his conceiver Jørn Utzon, the literature remains aloof about the building’s contribution to the management of construction innovation, the consequent definition of sectoral policies, and the role that public buildings have in their implementation. This paper documents the methodological underpinnings of a recently funded research project, which attempts to fill such a documentary and theoretical gap by seeking answers to questions concerned with the technical, social, political and economic dimensions of the project’s performance. The argument of the paper is that most of these answers can be produced by setting up a framework of historical data connecting the various technologies used for the project to a series of building industry cost proxies, and by analysing their dynamics overtime. The theory behind this work is that the value of design is seldom appreciated fully because it is difficult to measure it within the conventional project-based appraisal framework. The research makes an attempt to reach a better balance between project costs and future benefits by extending the scope of the analysis to the industry at large.