Construction management pioneer John Tishman died Feb. 6 at age 90 after a long illness. He managed the construction of the original 110-story World Trade Center twin towers in New York City and the 100-story John Hancock Center in Chicago, as well as Century City in Los Angeles, Walt Disney’s EPCOT Center in Florida and the restoration of Carnegie Hall.
John was the grandson of Julius Tishman, who founded Tishman Realty & Construction Co. Inc. in 1898. The company for many years built its own buildings exclusively. In the late 60s, John convinced the family there could be great opportunities in putting its experienced staff to work managing projects for clients for a negotiated fee. It paid off: “Every time we had a challenging project, it raised the caliber of our project staff,” Tishman said in an ENR cover profile of the company (ENR 10/19/1989 p. 44).