I believe that the idea of the totality, the finality of the master-plan, is misguided. One should advocate a gradual transformation of public space, a metamorphic process, without relying on a hypothetical time in the future when everything will be perfect. The mistake of planners and architects is to believe that fifty years from now Alexanderplatz will be perfected. -p.197

The print shop where his father worked was on Stone Street in lower Manhattan and Libeskind watched the original World Trade Center being built in the 1960s. Personal life

Born in Łódź Poland on May 12 1946 Libeskind was the second child of Dora and Nachman Libeskind both Polish Jews and Holocaust survivors. Since 2007 Libeskind is visiting professor at the Leuphana University Lueneburg Germany.

On February 27 2003 Libeskind won the competition to be the master plan architect for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. His portfolio also includes several residential projects.