Robert Valentine Tishman (April 7, 1916 – October 11, 2010) was an American real estate developer who was head of the family-owned firm

Tishman Realty & Construction Tishman Realty & Construction Co., Inc. is an American corporation founded in 1898 that owns and develops real estate. The company is known for being the contractor that built the original World Trade Center in New York City. Tishman Constructio ...

until it was disestablished in 1977, and was one of the two founding partners of

Tishman Speyer Tishman Speyer Properties is an American company that invests in real estate. History The firm was founded in 1978 by Robert Tishman and Jerry Speyer. In March 1988, the company announced its first project in Europe, the construction of a 70-s ...

, which was formed in 1978 and became one of the largest owners and builders of office buildings in the United States.

Early life and education

Tishman was born on April 7, 1916, into a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in Manhattan. His father David Tishman headed the family firm of Tishman Realty & Construction. The firm had been established in 1898 by his grandfather Julius Tishman, who used the proceeds of his department store in upstate New York to build a six-story tenement building on the Lower East Side. Robert attended the

Horace Mann School , motto_translation = Great is the truth and it prevails , address = 231 West 246th Street , city = The Bronx , state = New York , zipcode = 10471 , countr ...

, then

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

, where he was elected to the

Sphinx Head The Sphinx Head Society is the oldest senior honor society at Cornell University. Sphinx Head recognizes Cornell senior men and women who have demonstrated respectable strength of character on top of a dedication to leadership and service at Corn ...

honor society and was the editor of the ''Cornell Widow.'' After graduating in 1937, he attended

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

.Staff
"PHYLLIS J. GORDON ENGAGED TO WED; Senior at N.Y.U. School of Law Will Become the Bride of Robert Valentine Tishman"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', November 25, 1940. Accessed October 13, 2010. In June 1941, he married the former Phyllis Gordon, who had attended Wellesley College and the

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in N ...

, in a ceremony held at the Lombardy Hotel and officiated by Rabbi Nathan A. Perilman of Temple Emanu-El. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Tishman served on a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

destroyer in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

Career

After completing his military service, he went back to work with the family business. During the 1960s and 1970s, Tishman was president and chief executive officer of Tishman Realty and Construction, where he oversaw the construction of Madison Square Garden, the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

, the Tishman Building at

666 Fifth Avenue 660 Fifth Avenue (formerly 666 Fifth Avenue and the Tishman Building) is a 41-story office building on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The office tower was d ...

, and other projects. Expanding outside of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, the firm's projects included the

Century Plaza Towers Century Plaza Towers are two 44-story, twin towers in the Century City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. They are the tallest buildings in California outside Downtown Los Angeles and San Francisco. Commissioned by Alcoa, the towers were ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

commissioned by Alcoa, the

John Hancock Center The John Hancock Center is a 100- story, 1,128-foot supertall skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Magnificent Mile district, the building was officially renamed 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2018. The skyscraper was designed ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Renaissance Center The Renaissance Center (also known as the GM Renaissance Center and nicknamed the RenCen) is a group of seven connected skyscrapers in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, United States. The Renaissance Center complex is on the Detroit International Riv ...

. In a 1968 interview with '' Business Week'' magazine, Tishman described the company as "an intercompany conglomerate" that could identify building sites and help in all phases of design, financing and construction, offering "capabilities that no other owner-builder or general contractor matches". Tishman liquidated the original firm in 1977, and established Tishman Speyer the following year with his son-in-law Jerry Speyer, as the firm's founding chairman. The new firm developed more than 300 building projects around the world, including the Torre Norte skyscraper in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, as well as the Equitable Center on Seventh Avenue in New York and the

Sony Center The Sony Center is a Sony-sponsored complex of eight buildings located at the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany, designed by Helmut Jahn. It opened in 2000 and houses Sony's German headquarters. The cinemas in the center were closed at the end ...

Potsdamer Platz Potsdamer Platz (, ''Potsdam Square'') is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), and close to the southeast corn ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. As of 2010, the firm owned and managed some of commercial property, including the

Chrysler Building The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At , it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel fra ...

and

Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...

.Hevesi, Dennis
"Robert Tishman, Real Estate Developer, Dies at 94"
''

'', October 12, 2010. Accessed October 13, 2010. At the time of his death, Tishman Speyer was working as construction manager of a building at 510 Madison Avenue and was project manager of One World Trade Center, the tallest structure in the city.Tennery, Amy
"Tishman Speyer co-founder Robert Tishman dies at 94"
''The Real Deal (magazine)'', October 12, 2010. Accessed October 13, 2010. In his obituary in ''

'', Speyer said Tishman worked every day in the firm's offices until two years before his death. Tishman served as Chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York from 1966 to 1979, having been a member of the organization for 52 years. He was Chairman, and then Honorary Chairman, of Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, Associate Chairman and Charter Trustee of the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged, Trustee of the Citizens Budget Commission, a member of the Real Estate Advisory Committee of Cornell University, a member of the Board of Directors of Boys & Girls Harbor, Director of the Citizen's Housing and Planning Council, and was an Honorary Director of the Grand Street Settlement.

Death

Tishman died at the age of 94 on October 11, 2010, at his home in Manhattan. He is survived by his two daughters, Lynne Speyer and Nancy Gonchar, six grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. His wife Phyllis Gordon had died in July 1985. After his death, a named professorship was established in his honor at the Cornell Tech campus in New York City.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tishman, Robert 1916 births 2010 deaths 20th-century American Jews American real estate businesspeople Businesspeople from New York City Columbia Law School alumni Cornell University alumni People from Manhattan United States Navy personnel of World War II Tishman family 21st-century American Jews