Real Estate Titan Dies at 88

Manhattan real estate mogul Paul Milstein died Monday at 88. His empire included 50,000 apartments, 8,000 hotel rooms and 20 million square feet of office space, the New York Times reported.

Many of Milstein’s projects anchored the refurbishment of marginal neighborhoods, including turning around Times Square — an effort that some called “courageous.”

His philanthropy, much of it done with his late brother Seymour, was significant. It included the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life (“The Whale Room”) at the American Museum of Natural History; the building housing the architecture department at Cornell; an endowed professorship at Columbia; and the terrace and pool at Lincoln Center. His medical philanthropy included the Milstein Hospital Building of New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

Source: The New York Times, Douglas Martin (08/09/2010)