Everything about Daniel Libeskind totally explained
Daniel Libeskind, (born
May 12,
1946 in
Łódź,
Poland) is an
American architect of
Jewish-
Polish descent, who has designed many prominent and celebrated buildings. They include the
Jewish Museum in
Berlin,
Germany, the
Denver Art Museum in the United States, the
Imperial War Museum North in
Manchester,
England, the
Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the
Royal Ontario Museum in
Toronto,
Canada, the
Felix Nussbaum House in
Osnabrück, Germany, the
Jewish Museum in
Copenhagen,
Denmark, the
Wohl Centre at the
Bar-Ilan University in
Tel Aviv,
Israel, as well as many more commercial and residential projects around the world. In 2003, Libeskind won the competition for the masterplan to rebuild the
World Trade Center site in
Lower Manhattan. He was educated at
The Cooper Union.
Personal
Daniel Libeskind is the husband of Nina Lewis-Libeskind, sister of Politician and Diplomat
Stephen Lewis.
World Trade Center master design
2002 World Trade Center master design contest
After the
9/11 attacks destroyed the World Trade Center, then-
New York Governor George Pataki and then-Mayor
Rudy Giuliani established the
Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) to distribute more than $10 billion in
federal funds aimed at rebuilding the towers and downtown Manhattan.
LMDC had questionable legal status at the World Trade Center since the owner of the property is the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and
Larry Silverstein held a lease which permitted him to rebuild office towers on the site.
Nonetheless, the LMDC declared that it – rather than the site owners or leaseholder – should create the master plan for a memorial and office towers.
In 2002, LMDC conducted a national competition for a master designer for Ground Zero.
Libeskind was among the finalists which included:
Frank Gehry and several high profile architects refused to even participate in the competition as they considered the $40,000 (US) paid to the finalists was demeaning for a project of such stature.
The other finalists depicted massive buildings and a more open space at their base. Libeskind's design spread the offices over smaller buildings with one large central tower and less open space at their base.
LMDC chose the Viñoly design (dubbed "
Project Think"). However Governor Pataki intervened on Libeskind's behalf. LMDC reversed course and Libeskind, who had never designed a big tower, wound up with a commission for one of the biggest, most high-profile complexes in the world.
Memory foundations master plan
Overview
Libeskind's plan called for a memorial in the center with five large office buildings arranged in an ascending spiral upward from the southeast of the site. The spiral's pinnacle -- the tallest building at the site -- will be the 1,776 ft (541 m)
Freedom Tower, designed by
David Childs. Also included will be a transit station designed by
Santiago Calatrava, a museum being designed by architectural firm
Snøhetta, a cultural complex being designed by Frank Gehry, and various parks and public spaces.
The plan aims to fully replace the 10 million square feet (1 km²) of office space lost on
September 11, to memorialize the victims of the attacks, and to revive
New York City's
economy and
skyline. If schedules are met, the plan will be completed by the year 2015.
Detailed information about the Memory Foundations site plan can be seen
here
.
LMDC was to be criticized for allowing Libeskind to attempt to
micromanage the exact look and feel of the buildings. The argument had been that a master designer should merely say what buildings go where and then leaves it up to the actual building architects to design the building. While most of his plan has changed so significantly that he now doesn't even acknowledge the plan as one of his official projects, there are major legacies that affect the overall project for better or worse.
Freedom Tower
The single biggest Libeskind legacy is the
Freedom Tower. Libeskind, the Master Site Planner for the
World Trade Center site, envisioned a tower with aerial gardens and
windmills with an off center spire reaching a symbolic 1,776 ft (541 m) high. Libeskind declined a request to place it in a more rentable location next to the
World Trade Center (PATH station) and instead placed it a block west because in profile it would line up and resemble the
Statue of Liberty. Although the design was to be changed so the tower lost the Libeskind touches and became more buildable, the name "Freedom" stuck as did the height and the spot on the grid.
Slurry wall
The so called
slurry wall that had kept the
Hudson River out of the base of the original WTC tower was little more than an engineering footnote before Libeskind enshrined it as a basic part of any design. Libeskind's original plan called for the WTC memorial to be 70 ft (21 m) below street level so that it could celebrate the wall. Because of various technical considerations to the depth was raised to 30 ft (9 m) and there was a philosophical desire to turn the footprints into a
piazza for the new buildings. The slurry wall is now considered a major part of the memorial process contributed to efforts to protect other parts of the footings of the original towers. The idea of a sunken rather than street level memorial has stuck thus far.
Wedge of light
Since the memorial would be below ground level, Libeskind left the northeast corner of the site open as he hoped the light around the autumnal
equinox would hit the footprints. There was considerable criticism that this wouldn't happen. However, the World Trade Center (PATH station) was set at an angle so that it would permit the light if it in fact comes.
Memorial master design abandoned in 2003 with reflecting absence
Libeskind's plans first started coming undone in the 2003 World Trade Center Memorial Design Competition.
Libeskind had envisioned that the memorial would be 30 ft (9 m) below ground, with an exposed truck ramp coming in from the southwest corner. Further, a massive golden World Trade Center museum would hang suspended over the northeast corner of the site. A Performing Arts Center would be built over part of the footprints of one tower and a think tank/art gallery (to become the
International Freedom Center) was to overhang the other footprint. The entire southeast corner was to have a giant waterfall.
The design rules said that guidelines should be followed but didn't have to be. All of the finalists except
Michael Arad met those guidelines. Arad's submission was chosen over Libeskind's buildings; as a result, his design won the
World Trade Center Memorial competition.
Portfolio
The following projects are listed on the Libeskind official site. The first date is the competition date. The second is the estimated completion date
1989-1999 The Jewish Museum Berlin - Berlin, Germany
1995-1998 Felix Nussbaum Haus - Osnabrück, Germany
1996-2004 The Danish Jewish Museum - Copenhagen, Denmark
1997-2002 Imperial War Museum North - Manchester, Trafford, England
1998-2003 Studio Weil - Port d'Andratx, Majorca, Spain
1998-2007 The Contemporary Jewish Museum - San Francisco, California, US
2000-2005 The Wohl Centre - Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
2000-2006 Extension to the Denver Art Museum - Denver, Colorado, US
2000-2006 The Museum Residences - Denver, Colorado
2000-2009 WESTside - Bern, Switzerland
2001-2003 London Metropolitan University Graduate Centre - London, England
2002-2006 Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, Royal Ontario Museum - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2002-2008 Creative Media Centre - Hong Kong
2003-2005 Facade for Hyundai Development Corporation Headquarters - Seoul, South Korea
2003-2008 Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr - Dresden, Germany
2004-2005 Memoria e Luce - Padua, Italy
2004-2007 Epic - Sacramento, California, US
2004-2007 The Ascent at Roebling's Bridge - Covington, Kentucky, US
2004-2008 Grand Canal Performing Arts Centre and Galleria - Dublin, Republic of Ireland
2004-2008 New Center for Arts and Culture - Boston, Massachusetts, US
2004-2014 FieraMilano - Milan, Italy
2005-2006 Jewish War Veterans Memorial - Toronto, Canada
2005-2007 Aura Building - Sacramento, California, US
2005-2007 The Hummingbird Centre - Toronto, Canada
2005 Union City Condominiums - Union City, New Jersey, US
2005 Unawatuna - Sri Lanka
Completed
The Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany
The 'Frederic C. Hamilton Building' of the Denver Art Museum
The Felix-Nussbaum-Haus in Osnabrück, Germany, a museum dedicated to the life and art of the painter Felix Nussbaum
The Imperial War Museum North in Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
The London Metropolitan University Graduate Centre on the Holloway Road in north London]
The Danish Jewish Museum in Copenhagen
Studio Weil, Mallorca, the private Barbara Weil gallery building in Spain
Tangent, Hyundai Development Company Headquarters, Seoul, South Korea.
Memoria e Luce, 9/11 Memorial, Padua, Italy.
The Wohl Centre at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, a major expansion project of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada
Under Construction
A Jewish War veterans memorial in Toronto, Canada. The war memorial will remember soldiers who died fighting for Canada. The memorial will contain two walls reaching 15 m (49 ft), and an amphitheatre with seating for 250 people.
The Ascent at Roebling's Bridge, Covington, Kentucky. Residential condo development build at the base of the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, connecting Cincinnati, Ohio to Covington.
Reflections at Keppel Bay in Singapore.
Shopping Center Westside in Bern, Switzerland
The "L" (Libeskind) Tower Toronto, Canada - A new 49 story condo tower downtown Toronto that will rise above the adjacent Hummingbird Centre.(External Link)
Złota 44, 45-story (192 m high) apartment tower in downtown Warsaw, Poland
Proposed
Grand Canal Theatre, Grand Canal Square, Dublin, Ireland
Ørestaden, new city, Copenhagen, Denmark
Aura a 39-story (444 ft high) condominium tower in downtown Sacramento, California
EB Tower - a 23-story building in the centre of Brescia, Italy; headquarters of the local newspaper and luxury apartments
Unbuilt
'The Spiral' extension to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, was cancelled following its failure to attract funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Other projects
In addition to his architectural projects, Libeskind has also worked in the theatre creating set designs for opera. In 1998, Libeskind designed the sets and costumes for the Norwegian National Theatre in Oslo for The Architect. He created the sets for the 2001 production of Tristan und Isolde at Saarbrücken's Saarländisches Staatstheater. In addition, he also designed the sets and costumes for Intolleranza by Luigi Nono. The following year he designed the sets for a production of Messiaen's Saint Francis of Assisi by Deutsche Oper Berlin. He has also written free verse poetry, included in his book Fishing from the Pavement.
Bibliography
Breaking Ground (2004) (ISBN 1-57322-292-5)
Jewish Museum Berlin (with Helene Binet) (1999) (ISBN 90-5701-252-9)
Daniel Libeskind (2001) (ISBN 0-7893-0496-1)
Daniel Libeskind Radix-Matrix (1997) (ISBN 3-7913-1727-X)
Daniel Libeskind: Countersign (1992) (ISBN 0-8478-1478-5)Further Information
Get more info on 'Daniel Libeskind'.
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