Sandy van Ginkel was born on 10 February 1920 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He was married to Blanche Lemco van Ginkel and Lucia Hubrecht. He died on 6 July 2009 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
With his wife Blanche, his partner in urban planning, he lobbied against an elevated expressway over Old Montreal in 1960. He later became chief planner of Expo 67 and chose his student Moshe Safdie's project to build. It's Habitat 67.
