Daniel Libeskind will celebrate his seventieth birthday on Thursday, May 12

Washington/Prague - American architect of Polish origin Daniel Libeskind is part of the elite in world architecture. He gained fame for projects such as the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the prestigious commission for the reconstruction of New York's Ground Zero, where the skyscrapers of the World Trade Center (WTC) stood until September 2001. Libeskind, who also engages in design, theater set proposals, and costumes, will celebrate his seventieth birthday on Thursday, May 12.

His work is characterized by strong and bold symbolism, dynamism, abstraction, and an almost ascetic stark geometry. It also reflects the author's intimate relationship with music—as he is a skilled musician himself. Libeskind's intellectual puzzles attract theorists and laypeople alike, and his buildings provoke thought. According to him, an ideal object must be especially beautiful. "It should be a kind of magnet that attracts new activities, imagination, and at the same time, it should also be functional," says the architect.

Libeskind's commissions often relate to museums, yet he has also successfully handled commercial spaces and a gas station. Notable Jewish museums include those in San Francisco and Copenhagen, the City Museum in Osnabrück, the Imperial War Museum in Manchester, the new wing of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and extensions to museums in Denver and Toronto. A true triumph was the project of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, which made Libeskind a star.

The building, opened in 2001, has a floor plan reminiscent of a shattered Star of David or lightning. The metal-clad structure seems to be torn apart by sharp points of irregular axes, windows, corridors, slanted floors, and cold spaces, evoking feelings of loneliness, disorientation, and—most importantly—loss. Libeskind also incorporated railway tracks as a reminder of the transports of death. However, the museum is not meant to leave only depressive feelings; it should also embody hope for the future.

After this success, the architect was invited to participate in the competition to build a memorial at the site of the former WTC in New York. After years of delays, changes in the project, and authorship disputes, Libeskind is behind the design of the One World Trade Center skyscraper for $3.8 billion (approximately 84.5 billion crowns), which, at 541 meters, is the tallest building in the USA. At the so-called Ground Zero stands, alongside other high-rise buildings, a memorial to the victims of the terrorist attack and a museum.

Libeskind, whom critics sometimes accuse of not reflecting the surroundings of a building or its context, has in recent years made a name for himself, for example, by revitalizing the exhibition grounds in Milan, designing a 192-meter tall residential skyscraper for Warsaw, and being behind the project for a new theater in Dublin. In 2004, he presented in Prague a design for a building that gallerist Miroslav Smolák wanted to realize. It was discussed as a museum of Salvador Dalí or an art museum. However, the project ultimately did not come to fruition.

The architect was born on May 12, 1946, in Lodz, Poland, in a family that survived the Holocaust. In 1957, he left for Israel with his parents, and after three years, the whole family moved to New York. Initially, Libeskind studied music, and because money was tight, he earned extra income playing in bars. However, his piano skills dazzled even a select audience at Carnegie Hall. He still remembers that as a young pianist, he earned more than he does now as an architect. He acquired American citizenship in 1965.

In 1970, Libeskind graduated from the prestigious Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York. After studying in Essex and London, where deconstructivist tendencies were beginning to develop, he fulfilled his dream and established a studio in Milan. He has lectured at universities in North America, Europe, and Japan. He holds many awards and honorary doctorates. He received the Hiroshima Art Prize, which is awarded to artists whose work fosters understanding and peace.

The enfant terrible of his field, who has a penchant for dark clothing and cowboy handmade boots, is the father of three children. He has a very important partner in his wife Nina, who handles external relations for the architectural Studio Daniel Libeskind (1989).