Feature

The Architect's Architect

CH: What else was part of the fantasy stage for you?

Libeskind: I preferred originally to have no interior walls at all. But that idea met with a stony silence from Rachel and Nina.

CH: What did Nina have to compromise on?

Libeskind: She wanted a third bedroom, for when our sons come with their girlfriends, and for other guests.

Gorlin: I pushed to have two bedrooms instead of three so that we could keep the space open. So we thought of a way to have a rotating wall—as well as a Murphy bed.

Libeskind: Still, there are some ideas in the house that Nina alone takes credit for—Rachel’s room, for example, which Nina always fought to make bigger. She did it by disagreeing with both of these architects.

Gorlin: By force of will, she made Rachel’s room larger, and inch by inch we found space from other rooms—mostly from the master-bedroom closet—to do it. It was a battle for that space.

Libeskind: In Berlin, Rachel’s room was practically twice as big as our whole apartment here.

Gorlin: Nina wanted a balcony too. She said, “Can’t we extend out or maybe give up part of the apartment and create an outside space?” And I didn’t know how to answer that. I had to be the practical one and insist that you couldn’t really do that in this building. And that you could barbecue on the fire escape.

CH: Like a real New Yorker.

Libeskind: Yes, exactly.

CH: Alex, was there any element of the design you had to give up?

Gorlin: Not really. The things I’m not happy about have to do with some of the furniture.

CH: How will it be furnished?

Libeskind: Primarily, we have Mies furniture, which we bought many years ago, and original Le Corbusier chairs. Very spartan furniture, very modern.

Gorlin: Except for the marble table.

Libeskind: It’s a table with sentimental value!

Gorlin: The whole family wants to keep this table. And I’m not so crazy about it.

Libeskind: It’s a small dining table. It was part of our life in Italy many years ago. I suggested actually that we not use it, but there was a great outcry from the whole family that this table has brought us good luck, and whatever its aesthetic shortcomings, it has to be part of the new apartment.

CH: Daniel, if you had to choose between, say, a comfortable chair to read or watch TV in and a view of two walls that came together in an angle that was particularly pleasing to you, which would it be?

Libeskind: Well, the problem with that question is that it assumes my chairs are comfortable. To this day, my wife is unhappy that 25 or 30 years ago I convinced her to buy a Mies couch—no one can lie on this couch. She says, let’s throw it out the window. But I love looking at it.

CH: And Daniel, you’re now designing some domestic items yourself?

Libeskind: Yes, a chair and a piano. The chair is not extravagant—very functional, a chair for a home or a restaurant or a gallery. And the piano is a grand piano, a very new interpretation of a classical design. Apparently, it has already been ordered by the Sting and the Prince.

CH: Will you have one in the new apartment?

Libeskind: I think literally it wouldn’t fit.

Gorlin: Daniel, I’ll try to sell you the piano I designed, because I did one, too.

Libeskind: As long as it’s small.

CH: Daniel, have you had any pangs during this process, feelings that you should have designed the apartment yourself?

Libeskind: No, I always felt lucky that Alex was doing it, because my work on ground zero has been a 24-hour task. You know when you get up in the morning that there’s going to be another fight, another struggle, and more tension and a stressful day. But it has been a struggle with a purpose.

CH: When will you move in?

Libeskind: You’ll have to ask my architect.

Gorlin: May 1st.

CH: Alex, this must have been a nice change for you from a typical residential commission.

Gorlin: The wonderful thing about Daniel is you don’t have to explain everything, as you normally do when the person doesn’t understand a model or a drawing. I’ve had clients who don’t even understand the space once it’s built. I often wonder why they don’t walk into the walls! In fact, this whole process has given me more confidence that I should insist more often to clients that I’m right.

Libeskind: And it’s been good for me to be a client. Often architects see very myopically. I certainly learned, from being on the other side this time, the difficulties of being an architect. And you know, this has been like any project, in that it goes through transformations and compromises, and at the end everybody has to be happy in some median world.

CH: Sounds a bit like the design process at ground zero.

Libeskind: Well, yes. And one of the reasons I love this apartment is that it will give me a permanent view of ground zero. We’ll be seeing the Freedom Tower going up and then all the subsequent towers as well.

CH: At what point in the construction will the Freedom Tower be tall enough for you to see?

Libeskind: The cornerstone will be laid this summer, so I think in two years.

CH: Given how tense your collaboration with David Childs has been, is that really a building you look forward to seeing every day from your living room?

Libeskind: Absolutely. It was not an easy collaboration, and I’m certainly not about to go to SOM and join David Childs as a partner. But I think it’s a very positive development that this building is moving ahead within the master plan. And you know, the apartment has eighteen windows altogether—and they don’t all face in that direction.

See the Plans for Libeskind's Apartment>>>

An Architect’s Education

Big Break: “I never had any family connections at all,” says Alexander Gorlin. “My first job came after I wrote an article for a journal called Oppositions about Le Corbusier’s work in Chandigarh, India. Victoria Newhouse”—the wife of S.I., the publisher—“read it and asked me to do some work on a book of his sketches she was helping to publish. And she became my first client: I did a garden gate for her in Palm Beach.”

Networking Entrée: “And that led to other things. Victoria recommended me to Grace Mirabella, who was then editing Vogue, for example . . . ”

Biggest Frustration: “It’s that architecture involves people beyond the architect’s control. Especially builders. You wind up giving instructions to people who have to execute your work.”

Biggest Mistake: “I never make them.”

Proudest Moment: “The Nehemiah housing development in Brooklyn. It’s a completely different scale of work for me—840 units of affordable housing. It reaches people for whom architecture is usually out of reach.”

Dream Project: “A big cultural institution. Something even bigger than Disney Hall.”