DANIEL LIBESKIND: ARCHITECT FOR THE ARTIFACTS

 Walk of Fame | Annabelle Kolomeisky 

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When people think about museums, the first things that often comes to mind are the histories and objects that are housed within the institution. People less often appreciate the beauty and thought that goes into the outside of these buildings even though the architecture of a museum often plays a significant role as the reflection of the institution and the content that the museum displays. One incredible example of how architecture can reflect the themes of a museum is the design of the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, California, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind.

Exterior of the Contemporary Jewish Museum Extension | Source

In 1998, architect Daniel Libeskind was invited to design a new home for the Contemporary Jewish Museum. The new design was to complement the already existing Jessie Street Pacific Gas & Electric Power Substation and repurpose the building to become a space to promote community activity and to celebrate Jewish culture.

Throughout the architectural design of the museum, one can find many artistic representations of core Jewish values and beliefs. At the entrance of the museum, there is a very large and dramatic wall that greets visitors with the Hebrew acronym PRDS. This stands for the Hebrew word pardes, meaning orchard, but more specifically, the term refers to the four approaches towards interpreting the Torah.

Inside the Yud Gallery | Source

Another very significant symbolic representation of Judaism seen in the design of the building can be found in the Stephan and Maribelle Leavitt Yud Gallery. The concept of the gallery was to imitate the form of the Hebrew letter yud, which is the only floating letter in the language’s alphabet. The letter has a very strong connection to a central concept in Judaism, chai, meaning life. Chai, comprised of the Hebrew letter chet and yud, can be represented by multiples of 18 due to the numerological connection between the letters that comprise the word. Within this gallery there are 36 small rectangular windows representing double chai, which is considered to be good luck. 

The architect behind this beautiful building, Daniel Libeskind, was born in Lodz, Poland on May 12, 1946 to two Jewish parents immediately after the Second World War. Both his parents were arrested by Soviet officials in 1939 and spent majority of the war in Soviet prison camps. As a child, Libeskind faced horrible antisemitism in post-war Poland, leading his family to eventually move to Israel. In 1965, Daniel Libeskind moved once again, but this time to the United States of America to study architecture at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in Manhattan. It was during his studies in New York that he met his wife and partner in architecture, Nina Lewis. After completing his first degree, he continued studying, earning his master’s degree in the history and theory of architecture from the University of Essex. With his education behind him, Libeskind finally emerged as a notable architect after winning a design competition alongside his partner Nina Libeskind for the Jewish Museum Berlin in 1989.
 

Daniel Libesking standing before the Bundeswehr Military History Museum | Source

Libeskind is very well known for his numerous achievements among the architecture community for his work such as the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the National Holocaust Memorial in Ottawa, and even the design for the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal extension of the Royal Ontario Museum. Libeskind is an innovative and creative architect whose work can be appreciated all around the world. To see more of Daniel Libeskind’s architectural work and learn more about him you can visit his website and browse all of his amazing designs from around the world.