Counterpoint: Daniel Libeskind in Conversation with Paul Goldberger (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Paul Goldberger (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[Libeskind's] formally ambitious work has made him a favorite of clients looking for recognizable design. From critics, it has drawn a mix of admiration and vitriol that has placed him at the center of debates about the values and aesthetics of architecture in the first decade of the 21st century."
—William Hanley, Architectural Record

Product Description

Architect Daniel Libeskind, known for his dynamic, fractured compositions, is also recognized for introducing a new critical discourse to architecture. In an enormous variety of projects around the world—major cultural institutions, convention centers, universities, hotels, commercial centers, and residential work—he has manifested his commitment to expanding the horizons of architecture and urbanism. Counterpoint: Daniel Libeskind is the first comprehensive portrait of the work of Studio Daniel Libeskind, which was established in Berlin in 1989 and moved to New York in 2003 after winning the World Trade Center design competition.

Drawn from a series of interviews with celebrated architecture critic Paul Goldberger, Counterpoint exemplifies Libeskind's multidisciplinary approach, which reflects a profound interest in philosophy, art, music, literature, theater, and film. Along with Memory Foundations, the master plan for the World Trade Center site, featured projects include the Jewish Museum Berlin, the Royal Ontario Museum, the extension to the Denver Art Museum, the MGM Mirage CityCenter in Las Vegas, a multi-building complex in Busan, South Korea, and projects in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Israel, Mexico, Japan, and China.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: The Monacelli Press (November 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580932061
• ISBN-13: 978-1580932066
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 7.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #509,325 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pride comes before a fall, February 15, 2009

By	Caravaggio - See all my reviews

Just recently, Philip Kennicott, architectural critic for the Washington Post, reported that Daniel Libeskind's Royal Ontario Museum expansion in Toronto, "may be the most perverse and disastrous museum expansion in living memory." It was a shocking (though true), indictment of the reign of ego-driven "starchitects", many of whom paid lip-service to program or to budget, and of Daniel Libeskind's work in particular. "Counterpoint" offers an opportunity to view Libeskind's oeuvre as a whole, to analyze his questionable claim to fame, and his self-inflicted plummet to ridicule and ignomy.

Some ten years ago, Daniel Libeskind emerged on the scene with the completion of Berlin's Holocaust Museum. Initially opened as an empty space, he was, for a time, lauded as an original thinker. (When the museum was fitted out, its failings became obvious, and subsequent commentary was much less favorable.) Shortly afterwards, following his selection as Master Planner for the World Trade Center site in New York, Libeskind became a household name. But today, rather pointedly he has not been asked to design any of the new architecture there.

In the years since the Holocaust Museum and the Ground Zero appointments, Libeskind chose to focus on promoting himself, his "brand", and on developing his celebrity status, rather than on refining the process of design. A hastily-written biography and a pretentious book of "poetry" raised more eyebrows than praise. Intended to foster fame, these immature and self-absorbed ramblings merely exposed Libeskind to a scrutiny that has not served him well. He has become better known for his trademark egotism and haughty arrogance, qualities which manifest themselves in selfish attempts to force his pretentious, non-contextual vision on cities and neighborhoods of which he knows very little and seems to care even less.

`Counterpoint' offers the opportunity to review a selection of Libeskind's built and canceled commissions. It opens with his characteristic bluster (and remarkable naivete), and the implausible claim that Libeskind can work on 30 projects at a time. Specifically, the trademark bragging continues with an equally improbable pronouncement that he "designs every detail, every window, and every door ... to give a handcrafted look". (If by "design" one means a quick doodle with a thick black marker, handed over to an intern, there might be some truth to the statement ...)

Critical opinion now questions whether Libeskind's Holocaust Museum was merely a fluke. The slashing windows and tortured geometries that (supposedly) symbolized trauma for that museum's program were randomly applied to other buildings as diverse in program as art museums and office buildings. The crystaline forms of Denver's DAM were (supposedly) inspired by the Rocky Mountains. Yet they mysteriously reappear in Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum as do the, by now, cliched, slashing fenestration. And the "site specific" geometries intended for an unbuilt extension to London's Victoria & Albert Museum reappear in many subsequent projects. In fact, `Counterpoint' shows that Libeskind's portfolio owes more to recylcling last year's "bad idea" than it does to the more refined process of design itself.

Looking at the illustrated projects, it would appear that Libeskind himself did not understand what happened in Berlin, and felt obliged to churn out a recognizable visual gimmick in the hope that some Midas touch would kick in. It has not, and most of Libeskind's recent work has been deservedly panned. A common criticism has been that his interiors are mere leftovers of dubiously-derived exterior forms - the form of a museum in San Franciso is generated by two Hebrew characters ! - and are difficult or highly impractical in use. The exteriors themselves seem to be capricious exercises in graphics rather than meaningful architectural design. The resulting superficiality only adds novelty value where architectural value was expected, resulting in a grating, annoying experience.

Billed as a conversation about architecture, `Counterpoint' is no more than a visual chronicle of a short-lived architectural career first nose-diving into a form of graphic superficiality and now, deeply entrenched in chronic shallowness, is in out-of-control tailspin.

As a catalogue, `Counterpoint' merely emphasizes the dizzying downward spiral from the Holocaust Museum to Libeskind's current role as an architectural novelty act. The otherwise capable critic, Paul Goldberger, foolishly hitches his wagon to the impending trainwreck.