Daniel Libeskind

Founder and Principal Architect

An international figure in architecture and urban design, Daniel Libeskind is renowned for his ability to evoke cultural memory in buildings. Informed by a deep commitment to music, philosophy, literature, and poetry, Mr. Libeskind aims to create resonant, unique, and sustainable architecture.

Born in Lód’z, Poland, in 1946, Mr. Libeskind immigrated to the United States as a teenager and, with his family, settled in the Bronx. He received the American-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship and performed as a musical virtuoso, before eventually leaving music to study architecture. He received his professional degree in architecture from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1970 and a postgraduate degree in the history and theory of architecture from the School of Comparative Studies at Essex University in England in 1972.

In 1989, Mr. Libeskind won the international competition to build the Jewish Museum in Berlin. He moved his young family to Berlin and devoted more than a decade to the completion of this seminal design.  A series of influential museum commissions followed, including the Felix Nussbaum Haus, Osnabrück; Imperial War Museum North, Manchester; Denver Art Museum; Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco; Danish Jewish Museum, Copenhagen; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; and the Military History Museum, Dresden.

In 2003, Studio Libeskind won another historic competition—to create a master plan for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.  In addition to a towering spire of 1,776 feet, the Libeskind design study proposed a complex program encompassing a memorial, an underground museum, the integration of the slurry wall, a unique transit hub, and four office towers.  This plan is being realized today.

Upon his move to New York, Studio Libeskind quickly became involved with designing and realizing a large number of commercial centers, such as Westside in Bern, the Crystals at City Center in Las Vegas, and Ko-Bogen in Düsseldorf, as well as residential towers in Busan, Singapore, Warsaw, Toronto, Manila, and Sao Paulo.

As Principal Design Architect for Studio Libeskind, Mr. Libeskind speaks widely on the art of architecture in universities and professional summits.  His architecture and ideas have been the subject of many articles and exhibitions, influencing architecture and the development of cities and culture.

Mr. Libeskind lives in New York with his wife and business partner, Nina Libeskind.  He is a licensed architect in the State of New York.

 

 

Nina Libeskind

Founder
Nina Libeskind oversees the management of Studio Libeskind, from financial planning and record keeping to day-to-day administration and human resources. She provides counsel on all aspects of the business and participates in public presentations, contract negotiations, and communications. In 1989, Nina co-founded Studio Libeskind with her husband Daniel, bringing with her a range of experience honed in labor negotiations and political advocacy in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.

New York

Carla Swickerath

Partner

Since joining Studio Libeskind in 1999, Carla Swickerath has gained diverse experience in cultural, civic, retail, commercial, residential, and planning projects around the world. She has led many of the Studio’s successful project teams from concept design through to completion—including the Crystals retail complex at CityCenter in Las Vegas, the Hyundai Haeundae Udong I-Park residential development in Busan, Korea, and the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.

Ms. Swickerath has also led the complex World Trade Center redevelopment process from the initial competition phase to the present. Today, her dual management and design skills come into play as she oversees all aspects of operations at Studio Libeskind. Ms. Swickerath leads many of the Studio’s projects, coordinating the design team and consultants, liaising with clients and client representatives, and managing project budgets and schedules.

She earned a Master’s in Architecture from the University of Michigan, following undergraduate studies in English and Art History at the University of Florida. She has taught at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee in Berlin and the University of Michigan. Carla speaks publicly on architecture, design, and planning.

Stefan Blach

Partner

Stefan has over two decades of experience managing some of the Studio’s most complex large-scale projects around the globe. Stefan has led design and consultant teams to reach these goals in various cultural, residential, and commercial developments. This includes the development and completion of the acclaimed Jewish Museum Berlin; the urban rejuvenation development of the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, and Grand Canal Commercial Development in Dublin; the LEED Platinum certified Kö-Bogen retail and office complex in Dusseldorf, Germany; and the award-winning MO Modern Art Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Stefan looks at each project and reviews the complexity and nuances of the program and site to find creative solutions using simple and practical methods that deliver projects at the highest quality and on budget. He is currently managing the new museum design of the Museo Regional de Tarapacá in Chile, a housing development in Frankfurt, the urban development for the Central Deck and Arena and adjacent mixed-use in Tampere, Finland, as well as several ongoing commercial and cultural projects in Europe and Asia.

Stefan has previous experience working independently with renowned architects such as Tim Heide from Berlin and Salvador Pérez Arroyo from Madrid on projects like the Museo de la Ciencia en Cuenca before joining Studio Libeskind. He obtained a Diploma in Architecture from Technische Universität, Berlin in 1991. Stefan speaks German, and English and is proficient in Spanish.

Yama Karim

Partner

Yama Karim serves as a team leader on many of the Studio’s most complicated large-scale projects including the master plan and redevelopment of the former fairgrounds in Milan, CityLife, which is currently under construction; the World Trade Center masterplan; and Reflections and Corals residential developments in Singapore. He is leading the development of several high-rise towers including the Artery Tower in Vilnius, and the Baccarat Hotel in Dubai, as well as, the Albert Einstein Archives a cultural project in Israel.

Before joining Studio Libeskind’s New York office in 2003, Yama Karim had already collaborated with Daniel Libeskind for several years in the late 1990s in Berlin. He has brought extraordinary experience to the Studio, having served first as a senior designer at Polshek Partnership (now Ennead Architects) where he worked on the Brown Fine Arts Center at Smith College, Massachusetts, and the Sarah Lawrence College Monica A. and Charles A. Heimbold Jr. Visual Arts Center, New York, among others. He also worked at Reiser + Umemoto (RUR) in New York, where he served on the team for the Kaohsiung Port Terminal in Taiwan.

Yama has taught full-time at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich and as a visiting professor at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He graduated from Columbia University with a Master in Architecture in 1995 and from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Design in 1991. Yama speaks widely on architecture, design, sustainability, and urban planning. Yama speaks English and Farsi.

 

Michael Ashley

Principal

Michael Ashley, RA, is the team lead on many of the Studio’s projects ranging from cultural, and residential to commercial. He was a key member of the design team on the Zhang Zhidong Museum, which opened in 2018; the CityLife PWC tower; and two mixed-use projects in France; the Occitanie Tower in Toulouse and Iconic in Nice; and the reimagined Tree of Life in Pittsburgh.

Previously, Michael gained experience at a number of multidisciplinary offices including LPAS (Sacramento) and Mark Dziewuski Architects (San Francisco) where he specialized in a variety of mixed-use and residential projects. In addition, Michael ran his own studio developing product and furniture design as well as architecture.

He received his Masters in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University in 2006 and received a BArch from Andrews University in 1997. He has been a visiting critic at Columbia University, Pratt Institute, Parsons New School of Design, and New York Institute of Technology. Michael speaks publicly about architecture and design, including the United Nations International School.

Seungki Min

Principal

Seungki manages several large-scale projects for the studio with a focus on Korea. He is responsible for design development, project management, and daily communication and coordination with clients and local architects and consultants. His experience designing many large-scale high-rise luxury residential projects and mixed-use complexes around the world makes him a valuable leader of the design team. Seungki was integral in the realization of the residential complex, Reflections at Keppel Bay in Singapore, and most recently, the Hyundai Haeundae Udong I-Park in Busan, Korea, and Yongsan International Business District in Seoul, Korea.

Seungki previously worked with New York firms including di Domenico + Partners and MG Design Int’l LTD as well as Kolatan / Mac Donald Studio. He worked on various scale projects including NingoBo Sun Plaza in Beijing, China, and the Atlantic Terminal complex in Brooklyn. In addition, Seungki has taught as a teaching assistant at Colombia University.

In 2001, he received his MArch with Honor Award for Excellence in Design from Columbia University in New York and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Han-Yang University, Seoul in 1997. Seungki speaks Korean and English.

Arnault Biou

Senior Associate

Arnault Biou serves as a lead designer in many international competitions as well as on large-scale construction projects around the world. He has overseen the design and construction of the courtyard extension for the Jewish Museum in Berlin, as well as for Reflections at Keppel Bay, a large residential complex in Singapore, and the Corals condominium development adjacent to it. He is currently working on the L’Occitanie Tower in Toulouse, France.

Before joining the Studio in 2005, Mr. Biou worked as a senior architect with Steven Holl Architects where he was in charge of the design and construction of the Whitney water plant and parc in New Haven. He also worked at the Iowa University School of Art, the Swiss Embassy in Washington DC, the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, and the Turbulence House in New Mexico. He gained experience previously working for Gigon und Guyer Architekten (Zurich), BMB Architekten (Zurich), and Calatrava Valls SA (Zurich).

He received his Diploma in Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich in 1995. He has been a guest critic at Pratt in Brooklyn and City College in Manhattan. Arnault speaks French, German, and English.

Wan-Chi Chang

Senior Associate

Wan-Chi Chang, OAA/ RA/ LEED AP, has nearly two decades of experience in the architectural field and joined the studio in 2007.  Her expertise ranges from commercial, and residential towers and hotels to institutional and cultural projects.  She has worked on LEED-focused projects at the Studio including the L Tower in Toronto, Canada, and CityLife in Milan, Italy.  She was a key member of the Zhang Zhidong Museum in Wuhan which opened in 2018.  She is currently working on projects in Asia and the Middle East including the Baccarat Hotel in Dubai.

Prior to her joining the Studio, Wan-Chi was a project architect for DSTA Architects (Toronto) and subsequently at B+H Architects, where she worked on the team with Studio Libeskind for the Royal Ontario Museum expansion. She received a B.Arch from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She speaks Mandarin, Taiwanese and English.

Neil Cook

Senior Associate

Neil Cook, RA/ RLA, has over 15 years of multidisciplinary experience in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, and Land Planning.  Neil has worked on a variety of large-scale Cultural, Residential, Infrastructural, and Mixed-Use architectural projects, as well as a range of Urban master plans, Parks, Waterfronts, Streetscapes, and Environmental Education projects.

As a Senior Associate with Studio Libeskind, Neil has worked on a number of domestic and international projects, including Midtown West, a mixed-use residential project in Detroit; Verve, a luxury residential community near Frankfurt, Germany; Tor Di Valle commercial center in Rome; and the winning entry for the Kodrina Masterplan Competition, a new urban area in Pristina, Kosovo.  Currently, Neil is managing the design for two affordable senior housing projects in New York including the Allan & Geraldine Residences that opened in 2023.

Prior to joining Studio Libeskind, Neil worked at Reiser + Umemoto, RUR Architecture (New York), MKW + Associates (New Jersey / New York), and Land Architects (Colorado).  He earned a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Penn State University in 1999, and a Master of Architecture from UCLA in 2007.

Jay Kim

Senior Associate

Jay Kim has nearly two decades of experience in all phases of architecture, including design, construction documents, and construction administration. He has been involved in several large-scale masterplan and mix-use complexes around the world. He worked on the Denver Art Museum, which opened in 2006, the CityLife residential complex that opened in the center of historic Milan in 2013, the Yongsan International Business District Masterplan in Seoul, and Lotte Songdo Mall, also in Korea. He is currently managing the completion of the Maggie’s Centre at the Royal Free in London.

Before joining the studio Jay worked with Davis Partnership Architects (Colorado), Hans Kahn Associates Architects (Colorado), SEE Architecture & Urban Planning (Seoul), and Moo-Young Architects & Engineers (Seoul). He received his Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of New Mexico in 1998. Jay speaks Korean and English.

Ching-Wen Lin

Senior Associate

Ching-Wen Lin, AIA/ RA/ LEED AP, has more than two decades of experience in the architectural field, working on a wide range of projects from residential, commercial, and hospitality to higher education and cultural projects.  She is an experienced project manager and works closely with clients and consultants to coordinate design, documentation, CA, and field observation.  She has been a key member on the team for projects such as the Kurdistan Museum in Erbil, Iraq; Corals at Keppel Bay in Singapore; Haeundae Udong  Hyundai I’Park in Busan, South Korea; and the Century Spire in Manila, Philippines.  She is currently working on affordable housing projects in New York City.

Prior to joining the studio in 2007, she was a Project Architect/Designer at Holzman Moss Architecture and its predecessor firm Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates in New York, where she worked in all phases of projects including construction management.

She holds a Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University and graduated with honors from Chung Yuan Christian University in Taiwan with a Bachelor of Architecture degree. Ching-Wen is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English.

 

Paul Mecomber

Senior Associate

Paul Mecomber, RA, has over a decade of experience in every aspect of project delivery from design to construction administration.  He has played a key role on a number of design teams at the Studio ranging from a museum design in Africa to office designs in Rome and Tel Aviv. He is currently working on the Baccarat Hotel in Dubai.

Before joining the Studio in 2015, he worked as a project architect for Asymptote Architecture in New York City and was a designer at Tom Wiscombe Architecture in Los Angeles.  He also worked for a number of years focused on high-end and sustainable residential architecture in New York and Phoenix.

Paul graduated from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-arc) where he was awarded Best Thesis.  He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan.  Paul has taught architecture at Pratt Institute and SCI-arc and has been a guest critic at the University of Pennsylvania, Pratt Institute, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and SCI-arc.

David Heaton

Associate

Since joining the studio in 2017, David has been involved in a wide range of projects including the Ngaren Science Museum in Africa, A large-scale office complex in Sydney, a mixed-use complex in Bremen, Germany, and the National Pulse Memorial competition in Orlando.  David is currently working on Maggie’s Centre in London and an international exhibition in Moscow.

Prior to joining the studio, David won or placed in multiple architectural competitions and has designed and built several pavilions and interactive installations, including one for the UNESCO City of Light Festival in Jena, Germany.

David earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University at Buffalo graduating summa cum laude. He continued on at the university to receive his M.Arch and was awarded the King Student Medal for Best Thesis.  He also received a Master of Science in Media Architecture from the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.  He is fluent in English and Spanish.

Jeffrey Terranova

Associate

Jeffrey Terranova joined the studio in 2011. With experience in many phases of architecture, he has contributed to a diverse range of projects around the world including large-scale master plans, and commercial, residential, and cultural institutions. Jeffrey was involved in the design and presentation of the Harmony Office Tower in Seoul, South Korea, the Lotte Mall and Officetel in Songdo, South Korea, and the Vanke Pavilion for the Expo Milano 2015 in Milan, Italy. He also contributed to the design development for the Kurdistan Museum in Erbil, Iraq in exploring and implementing BIM technologies. He is currently working on the Einstien House at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Jeffrey received his Bachelor of Architecture Degree from Drury University in 2009. Prior to joining the studio, he worked at Killeen Studio Architects in St Louis, MO.

Amanda de Beaufort

Director of Communications

Amanda de Beaufort has more than fifteen years of experience in arts, cultural and architectural public relations. Amanda first joined Studio Libeskind in 2004 where she helped document and communicate large-scale publicity projects, including the World Trade Center reconstruction project and the expansion to the Denver Art Museum.

From 2006 to 2014 Amanda severed as an account manager at one of the leading cultural public relation firms in the country, Anne Edgar Associates in New York City. Amanda managed national and international publicity campaigns including the Grand Opening of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at The Brooklyn Museum; the expansion of the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas; the expansion of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Colombia’s national contemporary art biennial, and opening of the Renzo Piano Pavilion at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.

Amanda rejoined the Studio in March of 2014.