| He has been
called an urban visionary, a master planner, a Baltimore
legend, a pioneer and a trailblazer. In Columbia, the
community he founded and called his home, many just called
him Jim.
James Rouse, born in Easton, Maryland, on April 26,
1914, was orphaned as a teenager. He attended college
and law school during the Great Depression. After a
stint at the Federal Housing Administration, he started
his own mortgage banking firm in 1939 and expanded into
development in the 1950s. In 1958, he was tapped to
lead ACTION (American Council to Improve Our Neighborhoods).
By the late 1950s, Rouse had developed Harundale Mall,
the first enclosed shopping center on the East Coast.
Rouse served on President Dwight Eisenhower’s
Task Force on Housing in 1952 and on President Ronald
Reagan’s Task Force on Private Sector Initiatives
in 1982. In 1987, he chaired the National Housing Task
Force, which issued a report that formed the basis for
comprehensive housing legislation signed into law by
President George Bush in 1990.
In the 1960s, he focused on the development of Columbia,
the planned community in Maryland. In the 1970s, The
Rouse Company developed the festival marketplace concept
and opened Faneuil Hall in Boston. Harborplace in Baltimore
and South Street Seaport in New York soon followed Faneuil
Hall’s success. The success of Columbia and The
Rouse Company’s festival marketplaces led to a
cover article about James Rouse in Time magazine in
1981 and a National Building Museum exhibit devoted
to his work.
In 1981, Rouse retired as CEO of The Rouse Company
and began what he called the most important chapter
of his career. He and his wife, Patty, launched The
Enterprise Foundation with the goal of seeing that all
low-income people in the United States have decent affordable
housing and the opportunity to lift themselves up and
out of poverty into the mainstream of American life.
At the same time, Rouse started The Enterprise Development
Company to carry on his commercial development philosophy.
In 1995, Rouse received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
and was hailed by President Bill Clinton as an American
hero who helped “heal the torn out heart”
of America’s cities.
Rouse died April 9, 1996.
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