Rouse, James Wilson

▪ 1997

      U.S. real-estate developer (b. April 26, 1914, Easton, Md.—d. April 9, 1996, Columbia, Md.), altered the U.S. landscape during the second half of the 20th century with a series of innovative projects. He pioneered the enclosed suburban shopping mall in the 1950s, created the planned community of Columbia in the '60s, revitalized inner-city districts with retail-and-office complexes called festival marketplaces in the '70s and '80s, and financed low-income housing in the '80s and '90s. Known as a visionary with a social conscience, he was better regarded for his success as a social engineer than for the architecture of his buildings. Rouse attended the Universities of Virginia and Maryland, began a career as a mortgage banker, and served in World War II. In 1939 he cofounded what would later be known as the Rouse Co. The town of Columbia, which was designed as an alternative to suburban sprawl, was fashioned around multiple small-scale community centres. The racially integrated town had affordable housing and featured lakes and greenways. Rouse later lived there himself. In the 1970s he turned his attention to large cities, renovating old buildings to transform decaying urban centres into modern town squares, such as Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston, South Street Seaport in New York City, and Harborplace in Baltimore. He helped make the Rouse Co. one of the largest real-estate developers in the country. After his retirement in 1979, Rouse established the Enterprise Foundation, a nonprofit organization that worked with community groups to provide homes for the urban poor. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995.

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