Tishman Construction president says business is improving

Business is getting better, John Livingston, president of the Tishman Construction, told the New York Times in a recent Q & A.

“And some of the evidence of that is that some very significant projects in the last few months have restarted. One is called Revel, a large casino in Atlantic City. The other is the International Gem Tower in the Diamond District. They started a number of years ago; each stopped for about 18 months and started up again in the last six months.”

He took over at Tishman in July 2010, but said that Dan Tishman, whose family started the business, remains involved, assisting Livingston as a chairman and CEO of Tishman. He’s the company “icon,” Livingston said.

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Since Livingston became president, Tishman merged with Aecom Technology in a $245 million deal. Livingston, who is also the chief executive of construction services for Aecom, believes this has made Tishman global, giving it access to people in over 125 countries.

Tishman is also currently working on 125 projects, evenly split between public and private ones, including at the World Trade Center site. Tishman is building One World Trade Center, which Livingston describes as a difficult task due to its size and location, with the PATH and subway directly below.

As for his favorite project, “I like the Plaza Hotel, because I was married there.” He added: “When we first went in and started the renovation there, I tried to find the room that we stayed in and the ballroom that’s no longer there that we got married in.” [NYT]