Daniel Libeskind (born May 12, 1946) is a Polish–American architect, artist, professor and

set designer Scenic design, also known as stage design or set design, is the creation of scenery for theatrical productions including plays and musicals. The term can also be applied to film and television productions, where it may be referred to as prod ...

. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect. He is known for the design and completion of the

Jewish Museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area. Notable Jewish museums include: Albania * Solomon Museum, Berat Australia * Jewish Museum of Australia, Melbourn ...

in Berlin, Germany, that opened in 2001. On February 27, 2003, Libeskind received further international attention after he won the competition to be the master plan architect for the

reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

of the World Trade Center site in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

. Other buildings that he is known for include the extension to the

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With an encyclopedic collection of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums betwe ...

in the United States, the Grand Canal Theatre in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, the

Imperial War Museum North Imperial War Museum North (sometimes referred to as IWM North) is a museum in the Trafford, Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. One of five branches of the Imperial War Museum, it explores the impact of modern confl ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England, the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

in Toronto, Canada, the Felix Nussbaum Haus in

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; ; archaic English: ''Osnaburg'') is a city in Lower Saxony in western Germany. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population of 168 ...

, Germany, the Danish Jewish Museum in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, Denmark, Reflections in Singapore and the Wohl Centre at the

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan (, ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv, and is part of the Gush Dan, Gush Dan metropolitan area. It is home to a Diamond Exchange District (one of the world's major diamond exch ...

, Israel. His portfolio also includes several residential projects. Libeskind's work has been exhibited in major museums and galleries around the world, including the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, the

Bauhaus Archive The Bauhaus Archive () is a state archive and Museum of Design located in Berlin. It collects art pieces, items, documents and literature which relate to the Bauhaus School (1919–1933), and puts them on public display. Currently, the museum ...

s, the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

, and the

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

Early life and education

Born in

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

, Poland, Libeskind was the second child of Dora and Nachman Libeskind, both Polish Jews and

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

survivors. As a young child, Libeskind learned to play the

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

and quickly became a

virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'', or ; Late Latin ''virtuosus''; Latin ''virtus''; 'virtue', 'excellence' or 'skill') is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such as fine arts, ...

, performing on

Polish television Television in Poland was Timeline of the introduction of television in countries, introduced on an experimental basis in 1937. It was state owned, and was interrupted by the Second World War in 1939. Television returned to Poland in 1952 and for ...

in 1953. He won a America Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship in 1959 and played alongside a young

Itzhak Perlman Itzhak Perlman (; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist. He has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a state dinner for Elizabeth II at the White House in 2007, and at the First ina ...

. Libeskind lived in Poland for 11 years and says "I can still speak, read and write Polish." In 1957, the Libeskinds moved to Kibbutz Gvat, Israel and then to Tel Aviv before moving to New York in 1959. In his autobiography, ''Breaking Ground: An Immigrant's Journey from Poland to Ground Zero'', Libeskind spoke of how the kibbutz experience influenced his concern for green architecture. In the summer of 1959, his family moved to New York City on one of the last immigrant boats to the United States. In New York, Libeskind lived in the

Amalgamated Housing Cooperative The Amalgamated Housing Cooperative is a limited-equity cooperative in New York City. Organized by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, Amalgamated Clothing Workers (ACW), a Manhattan-based socialist labor union, the co-op's original cluster of Tudo ...

in the northwest

Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, a union-sponsored, middle-income cooperative development. He attended

the Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science is a State school, public Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school in the Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science ...

. The print shop where his father worked was on Stone Street in

, and he watched the original World Trade Center being built in the 1960s. Libeskind became a United States citizen in 1965. Daniel Libeskind was accepted at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and began school there in 1965 where he was taught by John Hejduk and received his professional architectural degree in 1970. In 1968, Libeskind briefly worked as an apprentice to architect Richard Meier. He received a postgraduate degree in history and theory of architecture at the School of Comparative Studies at the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. The university comprises three camp ...

in 1972. The same year, he was hired to work at

Peter Eisenman Peter David Eisenman (born August 11, 1932) is an American architect, writer, and professor. Considered one of the New York Five, Eisenman is known for his high modernist and deconstructive designs, as well as for his authorship of several archi ...

's New York Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, but he quit almost immediately.

Career

Libeskind began his career as an architectural theorist and professor, holding positions at various institutions around the world. From 1978 to 1985, Libeskind was the director of the Architecture Department at

Cranbrook Academy of Art The Cranbrook Academy of Art, a graduate school for architecture, art, and design, was founded by George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth in 1932. It is the art school of the Cranbrook Educational Community. Located in Bloomfield Hills, Mi ...

in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. His practical architectural career began in Milan in the late 1980s, where he submitted to architectural competitions and also founded and directed Architecture Intermundium, Institute for Architecture & Urbanism. Asymmetrische Fenster

Libeskind completed his first building at the age of 52, with the opening of the Felix Nussbaum Haus in Osnabrück, Germany in 1998. Prior to this, critics had dismissed his designs as "unbuildable or unduly assertive". In 1987, Libeskind won his first design competition for housing in West Berlin, but the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

fell shortly thereafter and the project was cancelled. Libeskind won the first four project competitions he entered including the Jewish Museum Berlin in 1989, which became the first museum dedicated to the Holocaust in WWII and opened to the public in 2001 with international acclaim. This was his first major international success and was one of the first building modifications designed after reunification. A glass courtyard was designed by Libeskind and added in 2007. The Academy of the Jewish Museum Berlin also designed by Libeskind was completed in 2012. ROMCrystal3

Libeskind was selected by the

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation was formed in November 2001, following the September 11 attacks, to plan the reconstruction of Lower Manhattan and distribute nearly $10 billion in federal funds aimed at rebuilding downtown Manhattan. ...

to oversee the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

. The concept for the site, which he titled Memory Foundations, was well-received upon its presentation to the public in 2003, although it was ultimately changed significantly before its execution. He was the first architect to win the Hiroshima Art Prize, awarded to an artist whose work promotes international understanding and peace. Many of his projects look at the deep cultural connections between memory and architecture. Studio Daniel Libeskind is headquartered two blocks south of the World Trade Center site in New York. He has designed numerous cultural and commercial institutions, museums, concert halls, convention centers, universities, residences, hotels, and shopping centers. The studio's most recent completed projects include the MO Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania; Zlota 44, a high-rise residential tower in Warsaw, Poland; the Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics at

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

in Durham, England; the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa, Canada; and Corals at Keppel Bay in Singapore, adjacent to the studio's previous completed project Reflections at Keppel Bay.

Design objects

In addition to his architectural projects, Libeskind has worked with a number of international design firms to develop objects, furniture, and industrial fixtures for interiors of buildings. He has been commissioned to work with design companies such as Fiam, Artemide, Jacuzzi, TreP-Tre-Piu, Oliviari, Sawaya & Moroni, Poltrona Frau, Swarovski, and others.

Sculpture and installations

Libeskind's design projects also include sculpture. Several sculptures built in the early 1990s were based on the explorations of his Micromegas and Chamberworks drawings series that he did in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Polderland Garden of Love and Fire in Almere, Netherlands is a permanent installation completed in 1997 and restored on October 4, 2017. Later in his career, Libeskind designed the Life Electric sculpture that was completed in 2015 on Lake Como, Italy. This sculpture is dedicated to the physicist

Alessandro Volta Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (, ; ; 18 February 1745 – 5 March 1827) was an Italian chemist and physicist who was a pioneer of electricity and Power (physics), power, and is credited as the inventor of the electric battery a ...

Opera and verse

Libeskind has designed

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

sets for productions such as the Norwegian National Theatre's ''The Architect'' in 1998 and Saarländisches Staatstheater's ''

Tristan und Isolde ''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is a music drama in three acts by Richard Wagner set to a German libretto by the composer, loosely based on the medieval 12th-century romance ''Tristan and Iseult'' by Gottfried von Stras ...

'' in 2001. He also designed the sets and costumes for '' Intolleranza'' by Luigi Nono and for a production of Messiaen's '' Saint Francis of Assisi'' by

Deutsche Oper Berlin The Deutsche Oper Berlin is a German opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house (after Munich's) and also home to the Berlin State Ballet. Since 2004, the ...

. He has also written free verse prose, included in his book ''Fishing from the Pavement''.

Academia

Daniel Libeskind was the Head of Architecture at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan from 1978-1985. During his tenure at Cranbrook he explored various themes of space, influenced by theorists like Derrida and he was part of the leading avant-garde in architecture and academia. He produced several writings, artworks and large-scale explorations, including the Reading Machine, Writing Machine and Memory Machine. The machines called the ''Three Lessons in Architecture'' were displayed at the Venice Biennale in 1985 where Libeskind also won a Stone Lion award. Libeskind has taught at numerous universities across the world, including the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, UCLA, Harvard, the University of London, and the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. He continues to teach students at various universities including the Catholic University of America.

Criticism

While much of Libeskind's work has been well-received, it has also been the subject of often severe criticism. Critics often describe Libeskind's work as deconstructivist. Critics charge that it reflects a limited architectural vocabulary of jagged edges, sharp angles and tortured geometries, that can fall into cliche, and that it ignores location and context. In 2008 ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' critic Christopher Hawthorne wrote: "Anyone looking for signs that Daniel Libeskind's work might deepen profoundly over time, or shift in some surprising direction, has mostly been doing so in vain."

Nicolai Ouroussoff Nicolai Ouroussoff () is a writer and educator who was an architecture critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''The New York Times''. Biography Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts to a family from Russia, he received a bachelor's degree in Russia ...

stated in ''The New York Times'' in 2006: "His worst buildings, like a 2002 war museum in England suggesting the shards of a fractured globe, can seem like a caricature of his own aesthetic." In the UK magazine ''

Building Design Building design, also called architectural design, refers to the broadly based architectural, engineering and technical applications to the design of buildings. All building projects require the services of a building designer, typically a licen ...

'', Owen Hatherley wrote of Libeskind's students' union for

London Metropolitan University London Metropolitan University, commonly known as London Met, is a public university, public research university in London, England. The University of North London and London Guildhall University merged in 2002 to create the university. The Un ...

: "All of its vaulting, aggressive gestures were designed to 'put London Met on the map', and to give an image of fearless modernity with, however, little of consequence." William JR Curtis in ''Architectural Review'' called his Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre "a pile-up of Libeskindian clichés without sense, form or meaning" and wrote that his Hyundai Development Corporation Headquarters delivered "a trite and noisy corporate message". In response, Libeskind says he ignores critics: "How can I read them? I have more important things to read."

Work

File:JewishMuseumBerlinAerial.jpg, Jewish Museum Berlin, Germany File:FelixNussbaumHaus.jpg, Felix Nussbaum Haus, Osnabruck, Germany File:Reflections at Keppel Bay.JPG, Reflections at Keppel Bay, Singapore File:2021 Złota 44 z PKiN.jpg, Zlota 44, Warsaw, Poland File:L Tower in April 2016.jpg, L Tower in Toronto, Canada File:Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin.jpg, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin, Ireland File:Bord Gais Theatre TEDxDublin.jpg, Bord Gais Theatre, Dublin, Ireland File:Studio Weil Sculptures.JPG, Studio Weil, Mallorca, Spain File:Denver Art Museum.JPG, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, US File:Kö-Bogen Düsseldorf.jpg, Kö-Bogen Düsseldorf, Germany File:Kö-Bogen Düsseldorf, Dezember 2013 DSC05573.JPG, Kö-Bogen Düsseldorf, Germany File:Crystals - Exterior East - 2010-03-06.JPG, Crystals at CityCenter, Las Vegas, Nevada, US File:Crystals - Interior02 - 2010-03-06.JPG, Interior at Crystals at CityCenter, Las Vegas, Nevada, US File:Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco (16870725773).jpg, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, California, US File:Libeskind Tower Il Curvo.jpg, PWC tower, CityLife, Milan, Italy File:CityLife Recidences Libeskind (17383220121).jpg, CityLife Residences, Milan, Italy File:Ogden Centre (geograph 5908287).jpg, Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics at Durham University, Durham, England File:Ntl Holocaust Monument 2.jpg, National Holocaust Monument, Ottawa, Canada File:EXPO 2015 Milan (21622848366).jpg, Vanke Pavilion, Expo 2015, Milan, Italy File:Imperial War Museum 2008cropped.jpg, Imperial War Museum North, Trafford, Manchester, England The following projects are listed on the Studio Libeskind website. The first date is the competition, commission, or first presentation date. The second is the completion date or the estimated date of completion.

Completed

* 1989–2001 Jewish Museum Berlin –

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Germany * 1995–1998 Felix Nussbaum Haus –

, Germany * 1997–2001

–

, England, United Kingdom * 1998–2008 Contemporary Jewish Museum – San Francisco, California, United States * 2000–2003 Studio Weil –

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

, Spain * 2000–2006 Extension to the

, Frederic C. Hamilton Building –

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, United States * 2000–2006 Denver Art Museum Residences –

, United States * 2000–2008 Westside Shopping and Leisure Centre –

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

, Switzerland * 2001–2003 Danish Jewish Museum –

, Denmark * 2001–2004

Graduate Centre – London, England, United Kingdom * 2001–2005 The Wohl Centre –

, Israel * 2002–2007 Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, extension to

and renovation of ten of its existing galleries – Toronto,

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada * 2003–2005 Tangent, Facade for Hyundai Development Corporation Headquarters –

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, South Korea * 2004–2005 Memoria e Luce, 9/11 Memorial –

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

, Italy * 2004–2007 Glass Courtyard addition to the Jewish Museum Berlin – Berlin, Germany * AscentAtRB

2004–2008 The Ascent at Roebling's Bridge, residential condominium building – Covington,

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, United States * 2005–2009

MGM Mirage MGM Resorts International is an American multinational hospitality, sports and entertainment company. It operates resorts in Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey, Macau, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou and San ...

's CityCenter, retail and public space on the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city limits ...

–

Paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

* 2004–2010 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Theatre and Commercial Development –

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

* 2010 Wheel of Conscience monument, M.S. St. Louis Memorial, Pier 21 – Halifax,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

2001–2011 Military History Museum –

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, Germany * 2002–2011 Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre at the

City University of Hong Kong The City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) is a public research university in Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1984 as the City Polytechnic of Hong Kong and formally established as the City University of Hong Kong in 1994 ...

– Hong Kong * 2006–2011 Reflections at Keppel Bay, high-rise and low-rise villa apartment blocks – Keppel Bay, Singapore * 2007–2008 18.36.54 private residence –

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

, United States * 2007–2011 Haeundae I Park Marina, skyscraper complex –

Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

, South Korea * 2009 Libeskind Villa – prefab smart house – Rheinzink GmbH & Co. KG Global Headquarters,

Datteln, Germany Datteln is a town in the Recklinghausen (district), district of Recklinghausen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the biggest canal junction in the world, where the Datteln-Hamm Canal, Wesel-Datteln Canal, Dortmund-Ems Canal, a ...

* 2010–2012 Jewish Museum Berlin Academy in the Eric F. Ross Building, academy – Berlin, Germany * 2009–2013 Kö-Bogen, Königsallee,

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, Germany * 2012–2015 Mons International Congress XPerience,

Mons Mons commonly refers to: * Mons, Belgium, a city in Belgium * Mons pubis (mons Venus or mons veneris), in mammalian anatomy, the adipose tissue lying above the pubic bone * Mons (planetary nomenclature), a sizable extraterrestrial mountain * Batt ...

, Belgium * 2013-2014 Ohio Holocaust & Liberators Memorial, Columbus, Ohio * 2014–2015 Life Electric, sculpture – Como, Italy * 2015 Vanke Pavilion, sculpture - Milan, Italy * 2015 Future Flowers, sculpture - Milan, Italy * 2015 Milan Expo Gates, sculpture - Milan, Italy * 2010–2015 Vitra Tower – Sao Paulo, Brazil * 2013-2016 Lotte Mart - Songdo, South Korea * 2005–2016 L Tower and Sony Centre for the Performing Arts Redevelopment – Toronto, Canada * 2013-2016 Corals at Keppel Bay, Singapore * 2012-2016 Sapphire, -

, Germany * 2007-2017 Złota 44, residential tower -

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, Poland * 2011–2017 Main building and auditorium,

Leuphana University of Lüneburg Leuphana University Lüneburg is a public university in Lüneburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Leuphana was founded in 1946 as a college of education (). Leuphana has since established a unique university model within the German academic landscape th ...

–

Lüneburg Lüneburg, officially the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg and also known in English as Lunenburg, is a town in the German Bundesland (Germany), state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of another Hanseatic League, Hanseatic city, Hambur ...

, Germany * 2015–2017 Odgen Centre for Fundamental Physics at

, Durham, England * Ntl_Holocaust_Monument_2

2014-2017 National Holocaust Monument -

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

, Canada *2011-2018 Zhang Zhidong Museum -

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

, China * 2017-2018 MO Museum -

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, Lithuania *2013-2019 Century Spire,

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

, Philippines *2013-2021- National Holocaust Names Memorial (Amsterdam), Amsterdam, the Netherlands *2018-2021

Tampere Deck Arena The Nokia Arena, also known by its non-sponsored name Tampere Deck Arena (), is an indoor arena in Tampere, Finland, which hosts ice hockey games and large cultural events. It is the home arena of Ilves and Tappara of the SM-liiga. Its construct ...

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

, Finland * 2015-2019

CityLife (Milan) CityLife is a residential, commercial and business district situated a short distance from the old city centre of Milan, Italy; it has an area of . It is a redevelopment project on the former grounds of Fiera Milano after its relocation to the nea ...

, Tower - Milan, Italy

Under construction

* 2002-ongoing World Trade Center master plan – New York City, New York * 2004–2020

, masterplan – Milan, Italy *2012-2021 Lotte Mall Songdo & Officetel, Songdo, South Korea *2012-2020 Amsterdam Holocaust Memorial - Amsterdam, Netherlands *2017-2020 Verve, Frankfurt, Germany * 2017-2020 East Thiers Station,

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionGreat Synagogue of Vilna restoration,

, Lithuania * 2017-2022 Occitanie Tower,

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

, France *2019-2024 Ngaren: The Museum of Humankind - Kenya *2020-? Baccaratt Hotel and Residences - Dubai, UAE *2021–? Tree of Life Synagogue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania *2022-? Boerentoren 'crown', Antwerp, Belgium *2025 Museo Regional de Tarapaca, Iquique, Chile *2025 Fan d'Issy, Paris, France

Libeskind design products

* 2007

Spirit House Chair, Nienkamper, Toronto, Canada *2009 Tea Set, Sawaya & Moroni * 2009 Denver Door Handle, Olivari * 2011 eL Masterpiece, Zumtobel Group, Sawaya & Moroni * 2012 Torq Armchair and Table, Sawaya & Moroni * 2012 Zohar Street Lamp, Zumtobel Group * 2012 The Idea Door 1 & 2, TRE-Più * 2013 The Wing Mirror, Fiam * 2013 Flow, Jacuzzi * 2013 Paragon Lamp, Artemide * 2013 Nina Door Handle, Olivari * 2014 Ice Glass Installation *2016 Water Tower, Alessi *2016 Gemma Collection, Moroso *2016 Swarovski Chess Set, Swarovski *2017 Cordoba light, Slamp *2017 Dining and side Table, Citco *2019 Boaz Chair, Wilde + Spieth

Awards and recognition

* Alexander Hamilton Immigrant Achievement Award (2025) * First architect to receive the Jan Kaplicky Lifetime Achievement Award (2023) * First architect to receive the Dresden International Peace Prize (2023) * First architect to win the Hiroshima Art Prize, awarded to an artist whose work promotes international understanding and peace (2001) *In 2003, he received the Leo Baeck Medal for his humanitarian work promoting tolerance and social justice. *AIANY Merit Award for the National Holocaust Monument, Ottawa, Canada (2018) * MIPIM/''The Architectural Review'' Future Project Award, for L'Occitanie Tower in Toulouse, France (2018) *

CTBUH The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is an international body in the field of tall buildings, including skyscrapers, and sustainable urban design. A non-profit organization based at the Monroe Building in Chicago, Illinois, U ...

Urban Habitat Award for the World Trade Center Master Plan (2018) *

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

National Service Award for the World Trade Center Master Plan (2012) *Fellow for the American Institute of Architects (2016) *

RIBA ''Riba'' (, or , ) is an Arabic word used in Islamic law and roughly translated as " usury": unjust, exploitative gains made in trade or business. ''Riba'' is mentioned and condemned in several different verses in the Qur'an3:130

Regional Award for Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics at Durham University (2017) *Received an Honorary Doctorate of Architecture from the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States, and other campuses in St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, ...

. *

Doctor Honoris Causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

of the New Bulgarian University in 2013 in recognition of his influence on contemporary architectural research and practice *First recipient of

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

of Doctor of Fine Art from

University of Ulster Ulster University (; Ulster Scots: or ), legally the University of Ulster, is a multi-campus public research university located in Northern Ireland. It is often referred to informally and unofficially as Ulster, or by the abbreviation UU. It i ...

in recognition of his outstanding services to global architecture and design (2009) *MIPIM award in Best Urban Regeneration Project for KoBogen (2014) *FIABCI Prix d'Excellence Award, Residential for Reflections at Keppel Bay (2013) *European Museum Academy Prize for the Military History Museum (2013) * Buber-Rosenzweig-Medal (2010) *Gold medal for Architecture at the National Arts Club (2007) * RIBA International Award for Wohl Centre at Bar-Ilan University (2006) * RIBA International Award for the

(2004) *

Award for the London Metropolitan University Graduate Centre (2004) * Appointed as the first Cultural Ambassador for Architecture by the U.S. Department of State (2004) * Honorary member of the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

in London, England (2004) * Man of the Year Award from the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2004) * Goethe Medal for cultural contribution by the Goethe Institute (2000) * ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine Best of 1998 Design Awards for the Felix Nussbaum Haus (1998) * Elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

(1996) *

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

First Prize Stone Lion Award for Palmanova Project (1985) *

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

Design Arts Grant for Studies in Architecture (1983) * American Institute of Architects Medal for Highest Scholastic Achievement (1970)

Personal life

Libeskind met Nina Lewis, his future wife and business partner, at the Bundist-run Camp Hemshekh in

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...

in 1966. They married a few years later and, instead of a traditional honeymoon, traveled across the US visiting

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

buildings on a Cooper Union fellowship. Nina is co-founder for Studio Daniel Libeskind. She is the daughter of the late-Canadian political leader David Lewis and the sister of former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations,

Stephen Lewis Stephen Henry Lewis (born November 11, 1937) is a Canadian politician, public speaker, broadcaster, and diplomat. He was the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations in the 1980s and was the leader of the social democratic Ontario New Democr ...

. Libeskind has lived, among other places, in New York City, Toronto, Michigan, Italy, Germany, and Los Angeles. He is both a U.S. and Israeli citizen. Nina and Daniel Libeskind have three children: Lev, Noam, and Rachel.

Bibliography

* ''Daniel Libeskind: Countersign'' (1992) () * ''Daniel Libeskind Radix-Matrix'' (1997) () * ''Jewish Museum Berlin'' (with Helene Binet) (1999) () * ''Daniel Libeskind: The Space of Encounter'' (2001) () * ''Daniel Libeskind'' (2001) () * ''Breaking Ground'' (2004) () * ''Counterpoint'' (2008) () * ''In the Unlikeliest of Places: How Nachman Libeskind Survived the Nazis, Gulags, and Soviet Communism'' (2014) Annette Libeskind Berkovits; foreword by Daniel Libeskind () *''Edge of Order'' (2018) ()

References

External links

* * Research Library at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, California * as part of

project
Libeskind Tower
as part of

project *
Architecture in the 20th Century
Liebeskind in conversation with Richard Weston and Melvyn Bragg, first broadcast March 25, 1999 on BBC4's '' In Our Time''.
Unbuilding Walls
Libeskind interviewed by

Graft Architects Graft (stylised as GRAFT) is a design studio conceived as a ‘label’ for architecture, urban planning, exhibition design, music and the “pursuit of happiness”. Graft was founded in 1998 in Los Angeles, California by Lars Krückeberg, Wolfr ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Libeskind, Daniel 1946 births 20th-century Polish Jews 21st-century American accordionists Alumni of the University of Essex Polish accordionists American architects American people of Polish-Jewish descent Architects from Łódź The Bronx High School of Science alumni Cooper Union alumni Deconstructivism Honorary members of the Royal Academy Jewish architects Lewis family (Canada) Living people Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin People from the Bronx Polish emigrants to the United States Postmodern architects World Trade Center Academic staff of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design