FEATURE

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF

Architect Daniel Libeskind

He may be best known for his winning design for the Freedom Tower, but Daniel Libeskind’s
relationship with the city goes much deeper than that. The world-renowned architect first came to
New York as a teenager, graduating from both Bronx High School of Science and Cooper Union.
When other big-name architects scoffed at the small stipend awarded to finalists in the World
Trade Center redesign competition, Libeskind dug in – and was awarded the title of master
planner for his virtuoso effort. Since then, the design has been modified, but his dramatic, thought-
provoking and highly geometric projects are going up all over the world. In fact, the architect is so
busy that he called the Resident in the car on the way to the airport in the middle of a meeting.

Jan. 19, 2007

12:00 – 12:30 p.m. Grab a quick
lunch with my wife Nina. Usually lunch is just
6:45 a.m. Wake up. Say good morning a sandwich I grab while I’m doing many other
to 17-year-old daughter Rachael on the way to things.
the treadmill.
12:30 – 2:00 p.m. Go to the library to
7 – 8 a.m. Run on treadmill, watch news draw. That’s my refuge, a moment completely out-
– NY1, CNN. side of anything. I’m in my own space.

8:15 a.m. Say goodbye to Rachael on her 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Meet with various teams
way to school. I give her a kiss. to discuss projects and designs.

8:15 – 9:15 a.m. Lattes at home
with [wife and partner] Nina. Coffee and
meditation. It’s not just filling up; it’s a kind
of moment of reflection.
10 a.m. Arrive at office on Rector Street.
There’s a myriad of things going on, meet-
ings on different projects, discussions and
meetings with clients. This when we do the
formal part of reviewing everything that’s go-
ing on - primarily issues of design. We work
with the projects on models and so on.
4:00 p.m. Do interview with Michael Posner
from the Toronto Globe and Mail to discuss the open-
ing of the Royal Ontario Museum in June. I very
often have interviews with journalists of various
kinds during the day. It’s part of the civic duty, part
of building buildings which are always in the public
realm. One has to be an advocate for the project,
one has to discuss them, one has to explain them.
If one is not just doing the run-of-the mill, formula
type of architecture, then of course, one has to be
engaged with it. The museum is a kind of crystal-
line structure, making it a very dramatic space.

10:30 – 11:30 a.m. Meet with vari-
ous teams to discuss a dozen or so projects that
we are working on at different levels of comple-
tion. Some projects are in the conceptual stage,
some in design phases while some are under
construction.
11:30 a.m. Meet to discuss possible hous-
ing and school project in Sri Lanka for tsunami
recovery. We are working on this because we
think it’s important. So we met with all sorts of
people who are in non-governmental agencies
doing tsunami relief.
7:30 p.m. Attend dinner party at Barbara
Sahlman’s house. It was a dinner for a charity
where dinner with me and my wife was one of
the prizes. Luckily, this was a very nice group of
people who had won this lottery and we spent
a lovely evening with a group of total strangers
who were really nice.
(Top to bottom) Daniel Libeskind;
The Denver Art Museum
Studio Daniel Libeskind

Resident The Week Of February 19, 2007 • 77