Daniel Libeskind to design Sacramento condos

SAN FRANCISCO — Architect Daniel Libeskind has designed major museums around the world as well as the original Freedom Tower proposal at New York's ground zero. 

Now the globe-hopping architect is turning his attention to high-rise housing in Sacramento. 

A 38-story condo tower by Libeskind is planned for downtown near the state Capitol and the Sacramento River. 

"Michelangelo built for popes and royalty -- why shouldn't ordinary people have the right to live in a beautiful environment?"  Libeskind said. 

The 262-unit project, dubbed the Aura, has approvals for height, density, parking and other environmental impacts.  But the city's Design Review Board won't vote on the tower until Aug. 17, and the Planning Commission still must approve a special use permit Sept. 8. 

Whatever happens on the regulatory level, the $128 million Libeskind project is contingent on co-developers Craig Nissi and David Taylor buying the 1-acre parcel from the city by the end of the year. 

Nissi, based in Denver, is confident that the land deal will happen.  He said he has sold more $5,000 reservations for places in the Aura than there are units in the project. 

"I'm 100 percent sure," the land deal will go through, Nissi said. " Our [condo] buyers are sophisticated about the product.  They don't want to live in a glass box.  They want to live in a great building." 

People who get shut out of that building might have a chance to buy units at other Libeskind-designed towers in Sacramento, Nissi added.  He said he has options on two parcels in town. 

"We have secured other land sites because we are so gung-ho on the city," Nissi said. " We'll make sure you get in to the next project, which will start shortly after the Aura." 

The red-hot temperature of the Sacramento housing market has a lot to do with Bay Area residents cashing out of their homes and buying cheaper digs in the capital city. 

Another Sacramento high-rise condo project in the works, not far from the Aura site, would have twin 52-story towers. 

State officials say Sacramento's population should increase by 38 percent by 2020 as the economy grows and diversifies and as retirees, among other groups, migrate to the city's comparatively slower pace of life. 

Nissi said his Aura units, which will cost on average about $488,000 per unit to build, would start in the high $300,000s for a one-bedroom condo.  Penthouse units will cost more than $1 million. 

Libeskind already has condominium projects under way in Denver, where he also is designing the Denver Art Museum, and in Covington, Ky.

And he isn't the only famous architect getting into the condo game. 

Frank Gehry, celebrated designer of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, has signed up to design a 40- to 50-story condo tower across from the Disney Hall. 

To Libeskind, it's a natural progression from Roman villa to Sacramento high-rise. " Architects have done the homes of wealthy people for centuries," he said. " Now they are doing condos."