Daniel Libeskind: A Closer Look at the “Starchitect”

By Veronica Rodriguez

With heights that surpass the city’s current limit by 200 feet and land that spans across over eight acres of prime Boca Raton real estate, plans for The New Mizner on the Green are quickly becoming the talk of the town. But the project is also garnering attention from abroad, and for that you can thank its chosen designer, starchitect Daniel Libeskind.

Having designed world-renown projects that include the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Reflections At Keppel Bay in Singapore, and most recently the Ground Zero Master Plan in New York, Libeskind certainly seems like the perfect architect to pick to sell the controversial Mizner project. And that’s just what he was doing when he came into town on Tuesday, October 14. In front of an eager crowd of 300 donors at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, Libeskind gave his presentation “The Language of Architecture” to explain his vision for the New Mizner. The famed architect has a reputation for picking up the spirit of a place and mixing it with his futuristic designs, and the four towers that are to replace the current Mizner on the Green rental complex will have these signature elements. We got the lucky opportunity to sit down with him and pick his brain to find out what makes the designer tick, and how he envisions the New Mizner on the Green fitting into Boca Raton.

You grew up in New York and were around when the World Trade Center was being built in the 1960’s, do you remember feeling awe at the sight of them that might have inspired you as an architect?

That was really an amazing project—it was a very controversial project, originally—so I used to go to the site with my friends all the time to look at it because it was an amazing feat. And you can learn a lot from construction, more than in a book, by just observing. So yes, it was very close to my experience.

How much freedom did you get when designing The World Trade Center Memorial?

Well, architecture is a fantastic art. It’s like music; I used to be a musician and both of the fields are within limits. That’s the difference between music and noise, right? [Music] uses a structure of sound. Likewise, architecture always has limits but that’s what makes both music and architecture creative. Within the limits, you really discover the world and you create the world. And look, if you write a sonnet, if you compose a piece of music, or if you work on a master plan for New York or Ground Zero, it’s in a way very analogous because you have limits but that’s where the creativity really is needed.

Of course, you need limits to have creativity.

Absolutely, if you just have all the freedom and no limits, I don’t think you produce anything good. I’ve seen those buildings, too, that have infinite budgets, that have no limits, but it doesn’t necessarily produce great architecture.

Relative to your other works, then, how much freedom did you get for Ground Zero?

Just like all the other works. It’s very difficult, there are many stakeholders at Ground Zero. You’ve got the families of the victims, people whose fathers, mothers, brothers perished; you have the Port Authority of New York who controls the site; you’ve got the government of New York and New Jersey who control the Port Authority; you have the developers who lease the land for Port Authority with their own architect; and you have the NPA, the subway authorities, the path trains…you have everyone involved, so you really have to create a project that brings consensus. We live in a democracy. We live in an open society where everyone agrees, ‘yes, that’s what we want to do, that’s how we want to go about it,’ and then you have to forge that consensus to create such a large and important project like Ground Zero.

What about the project here in Boca Raton? I’m sure you have to work with more restrictions on what kind of design can be built.

Residential living, living in Boca Raton in downtown, it’s also a fantastic opportunity to raise the level, to create something beautiful, to create a lot of public space—parks and beautiful places for people in the neighborhoods. It’s not just about a stand-alone development, it’s really how it’s integrated into the traditions of Mizner and the beauty of Boca Raton and also do something that is future oriented that raises the bar for living in this beautiful place.

Have you worked in South Florida before?

No, this is my first time.

Do you have any personal ties to Boca Raton?

My sister lives in Florida, so I’ve been to this area many times.

Why did you choose to do the project here?

The ELAD Group is a very quality-oriented company. I have worked with them before and I admire what they do. I went to see the site and I thought it was a beautiful site. I thought it was worthy of really creating a fantastic project and that’s how I met local architects, Boca people, who were really interesting and we created kind of a creative team.

So you decided to be on board after you saw the site?

Sure, of course. You have to see what you’re really getting yourself into. But you have to believe in it and you have to have faith that this is something you really want to do.

You have said that every building deserves a cultural approach, so what stands out to you about the Boca Raton culture or architecture?

The word sustainability is often used only technically. To make a sustainable building, technology is of course very important but ultimately, to me sustainability is to make something which is memorable and that people love to live in and love to have in their neighborhoods. So that’s really part of why that aspect is so important in my work.

Did you feel that Boca was memorable?

I thought that the neighborhood, the actual site, was fantastic. There’s already a context of some pretty prominent buildings. You know The [Boca Raton Resort &] Club, the large condominium, there’s the shopping center…there are many interesting things, so to weave in something that connects contextual but also to bring something new to the neighborhood of downtown and to create something fantastic for living here.

On a similar note, I’ve seen you compare architecture to music, and you’ve stated that you have to listen to the sound of a place before coming up with your designs. When you think of Boca Raton, does it evoke the memory of any kind of music?

Well, without sort of being cartoonish about it, if you listen to the waves at the beach, if you walk around the beautiful vegetation, you hear the sound of birds, you really get a sense that this is a unique place. This is not like another place in Florida, another place in the world, in fact. I think that’s how I [am approaching] the project. It’s about the uniqueness, not just about something that has already been done before. I think, this will be a first not only in my work but in anybody’s approach to this kind of site with open space, with fantastic views, with beautiful streets, with [an] incredible park. So again it’s not about following the ordinances of the city and just meeting the rules, it’s doing something exceptional.

There’s something that you said about experience that I found interesting in one of your interviews, you say that having experience can actually hinder you, and it can be an obstacle because sometimes you have to forget what you know. “You have to cease being an expert in order to do something new and something good.” Do you see yourself doing something other than design or architecture in the future?

Well, I [already] do: I’ve directed Operas; I have a design studio in Milan that produces furniture and chandeliers and all sorts of items for everyday life; I’m now also working even in fashion. So design is something that affects our life everyday because everything we have [is] our environment.

Okay, so you can actually apply design to everything that you see around you.

Absolutely, that’s true because a building is more than just outer face, it’s the spirit of the building. And if a building has a good spirit and a good vibe, it’s good for everybody. Not just for the people that are lucky to live in it, but really for the place itself, and really that’s why I think I chose that very nice site. Mizner, of course, himself was a visionary. He worked in another century but [he] also had an idea of open public space, of parks, of doing something interesting in his time. So that’s important, to bring that tradition to the present.