Quote:
Originally Posted by noonereal
I had always though highly of the Rouse Company projects of the 80's.
|
Jim Rouse was a visionary. He did some really good and ambitious stuff. In you're neck of the woods he did South Street Seaport and he also did Fanueil Hall in Boston and Harbor Place in Baltimore. All really good projects.
Before any of that, around 1970 I think, he undertook the building of an entire city from the ground up. It's Columbia, located in Rob's Howard County, Maryland.
Rouse bought up something like 15 - 20% of the whole county, using straw buyers picking up a parcel here and a parcel there so as not to drive the price up. Then he set about building his city, complete with housing at all levels of affordability, businesses of all kinds and even an industrial base. (GE's appliance division and Head Ski & Sportswear are examples.)
It worked and it didn't. Columbia, last I heard, was a good place to live but funny stuff happens when you add people into the mix. Rouse's idea of having a city where people both lived and worked fell victim to reality. People living in Columbia tended to work in DC or Baltimore and the factories and businesses tended to draw their workers from outside.
John