The Durst Organization is old enough to have lived through two pandemics more than 100 years apart.
During the flu pandemic of 1918, founding father Joseph Durst owned a few tenement buildings. Today, the family-owned real estate firm is one of New York’s biggest landlords, with a city-centric portfolio of more than 15 million square feet that includes skyscrapers such as One Bryant Park, One Five One and One World Trade Center.