Assessing James Rouse's Role in American City Planning

Abstract Throughout a long and productive career, developer James Rouse brought a distinctive vision to a variety of planning issues. While his involvement in commercial real estate set him apart from professional planners, he nonetheless drew widely on Garden City and neighborhood planning concepts to pioneer strategies for using physical design to enhance civic life. Alternating his energies between his native Baltimore and the national arena, he greatly influenced trends in modern housing, shopping centers, and philanthropy. Impelled as much by moral as material concerns, his innovations in urban policy mark important trends for the last half of the 20th century. This article examines his role in American city planning.