DANIEL LIBESKIND Biography - Architects, designers & engineers

 
 

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DANIEL LIBESKIND

Daniel Libeskind, B.Arch. M.A. BDA AIA is an international figure in                     
architectural practice and urban design. He is well known for introducing a new         
critical discourse into architecture and for his multidisciplinary approach.             
His practice extends from building major cultural and commercial institutions -         
including museums and concert halls- to convention centers, universities,               
housing, hotels, shopping centers and residential work.  He also designs opera           
sets and maintains an object design studio.                                             
                                                                                         
Born in postwar Poland in 1946, Mr. Libeskind became an American citizen in             
1965.  He studied music in Israel (on the America-Israel Cultural Foundation             
Scholarship) and in New York, becoming a virtuoso performer.  He left music to           
study architecture, receiving his professional architectural degree in 1970 from         
the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City.  He           
received a postgraduate degree in History and Theory of Architecture at the             
School of Comparative Studies at Essex University (England) in 1972.                     
                                                                                         
In 1989, Mr. Libeskind won the competition for the Jewish Museum Berlin, which           
opened to the public in September 2001 to wide public acclaim.  The city museum         
of Osnabrück, Germany, The Felix Nussbaum Haus, opened in July 1998.  In July           
2002, the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, England opened to the public.         
Atelier Weil, a private atelier/gallery, opened in Mallorca, Spain in September         
2003.  The Graduate Student Centre at the London Metropolitan University opened         
in March 2004, and the Danish Jewish Museum opened in Copenhagen in June 2004.           
Tangent, an office tower for the Hyundai Development Corporation, opened in             
Seoul, Korea in February 2005.  Memoria e Luce, a 9/11 memorial in Padua, Italy         
opened on September 11, 2005, and  the Wohl Centre, Bar Ilan University, Tel             
Aviv, Israel opened in October, 2005.  Most recently,  the  Frederic C.Hamilton         
building , Extension to the Denver Art Museum, alongside the Denver Museum               
Residences, in Colorado, opened  in October  2006 , the Extension to the Royal           
Ontario Museum, Canada, opened in June of 2007, and the Glass Courtyard, an             
extension to the Jewish Museum Berlin, which covers the original Courtyard, was         
completed in the Fall 2007.                                                             
                                                                                         
Several of Mr. Libeskind’s projects are currently under construction, including:         
                                                                                         
Westside, the largest shopping and wellness center in Europe in Bern,                   
Switzerland; the Military History Museum in Dresden, Germany; the Ascent at             
Roebling’s Bridge, a residential high-rise in Covington, Kentucky; the                   
Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, California : the Grand Canal               
performing Arts Centre and Galleria in Dublin, Irland ; City Center , a retail           
complex , on the Las vegas Strip in Nevada; Zlota 44 , a residential high rise           
in Warsaw , Poland and a grand piano , designed for Schimmel Pianos, is                 
currently in production. Upon winning the World Trade Center design competition         
in February 2003, Daniel Libeskind was appointed as master plan architect for           
the site in New York City.  Memory Foundations is now under construction.               
                                                                                         
Mr. Libeskind has many other projects in design and planning, such as the New           
Center for Arts and Culture in Boston, Massachusetts; the redevelopment of the           
Hummingbird Centre - the L Tower, for the Performing Arts in Toronto , Canada ;         
the redevelopment of the historic Fiera Milano Fairgrounds in Milan, Italy,  New         
Songdo City, in Incheon, South Korea; a waterfront, residential development,             
Reflexions, in keppel bay, Singapore; Rejuvenation, a center for children in the         
Katrina-ravaged area of Gulfport, Mississippi; Editoriale Bresciana Tower in             
Brescia; and Orestad Downtown Master Site Plan, in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is         
a 5 km development zone.                                                                 
                                                                                         
                                                                                         
Mr. Libeskind has taught and lectured at many universities worldwide.  He has           
held such positions as the Frank O. Gehry Chair at the University of Toronto,           
Professor at the Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe, Germany, and the Cret             
Chair at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Louis Kahn Chair at Yale               
University.  He has received numerous awards, including the 2001 Hiroshima Art           
Prize - an award given to an artist whose work promotes international                   
understanding and peace, never before given to an architect.  He was awarded the         
1999 Deutsche Architekturpreis (German Architecture Prize) for the Jewish Museum         
Berlin; also the 2000 Goethe Medallion for cultural contribution; in 1996 the           
American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Architecture and in the same year         
the Berlin Cultural Prize; in 1990 a membership in the European Academy of Arts         
and Letters; in 1997 an Honorary Doctorate from Humboldt Universität, Berlin;           
also in 1999 an Honorary Doctorate from the College of Arts and Humanities,             
Essex University, England; in 2002 an Honorary Doctorate from the University of         
Edinburgh and an Honorary Doctorate from DePaul University, Chicago, and most           
recently in 2004, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Toronto.  Two of         
Mr. Libeskind’s buildings won RIBA Awards in 2004, the London Metropolitan               
University Graduate Centre and the Imperial War Museum North, the latter of             
which was also nominated for the Stirling Prize.  Also in 2004, Mr. Libeskind           
was appointed the first Cultural Ambassador for Architecture by the U.S.                 
Department of State, as part of the CultureConnect Program.                             
                                                                                         
Daniel Libeskind’s work has been exhibited extensively in major museums and             
galleries around the world and has also been the subject of numerous                     
international publications in many languages.  His buildings have appeared on           
the covers of Time Magazine, Newsweek, Architectural Record, and the Wall Street         
Journal, among others.  Mr. Libeskind’s ideas have influenced a new generation           
of architects and those interested in the future development of cities and               
culture.  In September, 2004, Riverhead Books (Penguin Group) published his             
memoir, Breaking Ground.  The foreign language editions were published in