Polish American architect known for introducing complex ideas and emotions into his designs.

Libeskind first studied music at the Łódź Conservatory, and in 1960 he moved to New York City on a music scholarship. Changing his artistic aims after arriving, he began to study architecture under John Hejduk and Peter Eisenman (Eisenman, Peter) at Cooper Union. After receiving his master's degree in the history and theory of architecture from the University of Essex, England (1972), he became known as an academic, especially for his time teaching at the Cranbrook Academy of Art (1978–85) in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Libeskind's international reputation as an architect was solidified when in 1989 he won the competition to build an addition to the Berlin Museum that would house the city museum's collection of objects related to Jewish history. Despite a decade of opposition through local politics, the building itself was completed in 1999 and opened as a museum in 2001. Libeskind, who lost most of his family in the Holocaust, worked to convey several levels of meaning in the building. The base of the complex runs in a broken, zig-zag pattern, creating a floor plan that resembles the Star of David, which Jews were forced to wear displayed prominently on their clothing during the Nazi occupation. Throughout the length of the museum runs a space known as the Void, which is a path of raw, blank concrete walls. Visitors can see the Void, but they cannot enter it or use it to access other parts of the museum; in this way, it suggests both notions of absence and paths not taken. Crooked slices of window allow light that creates a disorienting, almost violent feeling throughout the structure, while, at the same time, an adjacent sculpture garden creates a sense of meditative silence. Because the spatial experience is so powerful, many felt that the building might better serve as a memorial without any installations. Controversy swirled over this proposal until, in 2000–01, Libeskind remodeled the building somewhat to facilitate its museum function.

Libeskind continued to be sought after for Jewish projects. Among these were the interior of the Danish Jewish Museum (completed 2003) in Copenhagen, a glass courtyard (completed 2007) for the Jewish Museum in Berlin, and the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco (completed 2008). He was also tapped for a variety of art-museum buildings—including the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal (completed 2007), an extension of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto; and an extension to the Denver Art Museum, Frederic C. Hamilton Building (opened 2006) in Denver, Colo.—and many other structures.