Daniel Libeskind

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Daniel Libeskind in front of his extension to the Denver Art Museum.
Daniel Libeskind in front of his extension to the Denver Art Museum.

Daniel Libeskind, (born May 12, 1946 in Łódź, Poland) is a Polish born American architect, who, in 2003, was given a commission to create a master plan to reconstruct the World Trade Center.

The aluminium clad east face of the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, England.
The aluminium clad east face of the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, England.
The Jewish Museum in Berlin
The Jewish Museum in Berlin

Contents

[edit] World Trade Center Master Design

[edit] 2002 World Trade Center Master Design Contest

Libeskind's master plan for the World Trade Center called for a museum to overhang the site and performing arts spaces and an art gallery to overhang the footprints on the sides.
Libeskind's master plan for the World Trade Center called for a museum to overhang the site and performing arts spaces and an art gallery to overhang the footprints on the sides.

After the 9/11 attacks destroyed the World Trade Center, Pataki and then-Mayor Rudolph 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[1] which included:

Frank Gehry said several high profile architects refused to even participate as they considered the $40,000 (US) paid to the finalists was demeaning for a project of such stature.[2]

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 Vinoly design (dubbed "Project Think"). However 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.

A map clarifying the boundaries of the contest from the LMDC's Contest Guidelines
A map clarifying the boundaries of the contest from the LMDC's Contest Guidelines

[edit] Memory Foundations Master Plan

[edit] 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 1776 foot (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 11th, 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 does not 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 (under construction) in Manhattan
Freedom Tower (under construction) in Manhattan

[edit] Freedom Tower

The single biggest Libeskind legacy is the Freedom Tower. Libeskind envisioned a tower with aerial gardens and windmills with an off center spire reaching a symbolic 1,776 feet high. Libeskind thumbed his nose at 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.

[edit] The 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 feet below street level so that it could celebrate the wall. Because of various technical considerations to the depth was raised to 30 feet 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.

[edit] 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 would not 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.

[edit] Memorial Master Design Abandoned in 2003 With Reflecting Absence

NY Governor George Pataki and Architect Daniel Libeskind at an event on December 17, 2006. The event was to sign a 53.4-ton steel beam which was placed as part of the Freedom Tower foundation on December 20, 2006. Libeskind signed the beam with the words he spoke when his master plan for the trade center site was chosen in 2003, "Life victorious!"
NY Governor George Pataki and Architect Daniel Libeskind at an event on December 17, 2006. The event was to sign a 53.4-ton steel beam which was placed as part of the Freedom Tower foundation on December 20, 2006. Libeskind signed the beam with the words he spoke when his master plan for the trade center site was chosen in 2003, "Life victorious!"

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 feet 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 did not 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.

[edit] Freedom Tower Redesign Ends the Libeskind Era

Libeskind's involvement with Ground Zero effectively ended in 2004 after he also lost a battle with David Childs who is actually designing the Freedom Tower for developer Larry Silverstein. Libeskind's soaring glass enclosed design with airborne windmills was considered unsafe and unbuildable. Libeskind continued to be quoted in the newspapers about developments but his active involvement was over.

[edit] Portfolio

Internal space of Jewish Museum in Berlin
Internal space of Jewish Museum in Berlin

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, Mallorca, Spain
  • 1998-2007 The Contemporary Jewish Museum - San Francisco, California
  • 2000-2005 The Wohl Centre - Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
  • 2000-2006 Extension to the Denver Art Museum - Denver, Colorado
  • 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 - Dresden, Germany
  • 2004-2005 Memoria e Luce - Padua, Italy
  • 2004-2007 Epic - Sacramento, USA
  • 2004-2007 The Ascent at Roebling's Bridge - Covington, Kentucky
  • 2004-2008 Grand Canal Performing Arts Centre and Galleria - Dublin, Ireland
  • 2004-2008 New Center for Arts and Culture - Boston, Massachusetts
  • 2004-2014 Fiera Milano - Milan, Italy
  • 2005-2006 Jewish War Veterans Memorial - Toronto, Canada
  • 2005-2007 Aura - Sacramento, California
  • 2005-2007 The Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts - Toronto, Canada
  • 2005 Union City Condominiums - Union City, New Jersey
  • 2005 Unawatuna - Sri Lanka

[edit] Completed

[edit] Under way

Artist's rendering of the Royal Ontario Museum expansion in Toronto
Artist's rendering of the Royal Ontario Museum expansion in Toronto
  • The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, a major expansion project of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, due for completion in 2007.
  • Jewish War veterans memorial (Toronto), a war memorial remembering soldiers who died fighting for Canada. The memorial will contain two walls reaching 15m, and an amphitheatre with seating for 250 people. Construction is due to begin in 2007.
  • The Ascent at Roebling's Bridge, Covington, Kentucky. Residential condo development build at the base of the John R. Roebling Suspension Bridge, connecting Cincinnati to Covington.

[edit] Proposed

Złota 44, apartment tower in Warsaw.
Złota 44, apartment tower in Warsaw.

[edit] Unbuilt

[edit] 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 Luigi Nono's Intoleranza. The following year he designed the sets for a production of Messiaen's Saint Francis of Assisi by Deutsche Oper in Berlin. He has also written free verse poetry included in his book Fishing from the Pavement.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

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