In 1986, the New York Times called William Zeckendorf Jr. “Manhattan’s most active real-estate developer,” a judgment borne out by Zeckendorf’s fascinating memoir. The second generation of a legendary family of developers, “Bill” Zeckendorf was a developer with a social conscience, not only putting up buildings but opening neglected parts of the city and transforming whole communities. Among the projects Zeckendorf chronicles in detail—and with rich documentary illustrations—are the Columbia, which set off a building boom on the Upper West Side; the four-acre Worldwide Plaza, a landmark in West Midtown; Queens West, the first residential project on the waterfront in Queens; the enormous Ronald Reagan Office Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.; and numerous projects in Santa Fe, his beloved second home.