Whitehead’s ability to manage different projects well was prominent in his selection as chair of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation this year.

“I’ve known John Whitehead for 35 years,” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg writes in an e-mail. “I don’t think there is anyone better suited to head the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.”

Whitehead understood that presiding over one of the largest urban redevelopment projects the nation has ever seen would provide an interesting challenge.

“We have so many different, and potentially conflicting, constituencies...as well as the different city and state agencies who have a hand in everything that gets built,” Whitehead says.

A Quinnipiac University poll in February indicated that three out of four New Yorkers favored rebuilding of some sort on the site. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, by contrast, is lobbying to keep the Ground Zero site unbuilt, possibly turning it into a large memorial park.

Others, including several prominent Sept 11. survivors, have argued that the Twin Towers should be rebuilt as before.

Faced with these diverging ideological opinions, Whitehead is pragmatic.

“Although no final decision has been made, rebuilding the Twin Towers is unlikely for the very practical reason that no one would want to work there,” he says.

Whitehead says that the majority of the building would have to be funded with private money, so he is working closely with a variety of real estate developers, including the owner of a 99-year lease on the site.

Because of these potential conflicts, one of Whitehead’s primary goals at the moment is consensus building. And despite some criticism that the board is stacked with Republicans, Whitehead has received widespread support.

“John is extremely competent and dedicated,” Bloomberg writes.

—Nicholas F. Josefowitz can be reached at josefow@fas.harvard.edu.