Zeckendorf, William

Zeckendorf, William

(1905–76) real estate developer; born in Paris, Ill. He spent his career in real estate, after 1938 with Webb & Knapp, New York, of which he became sole owner in 1949. Before the company's spectacular bankruptcy in 1965, he embodied glamorous real estate dealmaking: he put together the United Nations site in New York, initiated major urban renewal developments, and employed architects such as I. M. Pei and Le Corbusier.