David Rockefeller, president of Chase Manhattan Bank, envisioned a World Trade Center for lower Manhattan. Realizing that he needed public funding in order to construct the massive project, he approached Tobin. Although many questioned the Port Authority's entry into the real estate market, Tobin saw the project as a way to enhance the agency's power and prestige, and agreed to the project. The Port Authority was the overseer of the World Trade Center, hiring the architect Minoru Yamasaki and engineer Leslie Robertson.