What Daniel Libeskind Does When Not Rebuilding Ground Zero

The sneering was involuntary when we read that Daniel Libeskind, whose idealistic World Trade Center scheme became the cudgel that George Pataki used to freeze ground zero, would keynote a weeklong conference of brand managers at Chelsea Piers. But then the effervescent architect started guiding a half-full ballroom through his recent work, and we realized this guy’s had a lot of output while we’ve bickered over a memorial. Libeskind’s new projects under construction include a jagged apartment tower facing downtown Cincinnati and a wing of the Royal Ontario Museum that suggests a giddy urban campsite. Libeskind, as ever, refused to carp. On the World Trade Center, he told us: “You see the slurry wall being repaired — you see something optimistic there.” Well, at least he does. —Alec Appelbaum