Rouse, James W (1914-1906)

US real estate developer and urban planner. In 1958 he made his name with the first completely enclosed shopping mall. In the 1960s he gained a wider reputation by building Columbia, Maryland, a totally planned city designed eventually to have 100,000 residents. In the 1970s he worked on restoring run-down focal locales in cities. He is credited with coining the term ‘urban renewal’.

He was born in Easton, Maryland. He attended night classes at the University of Maryland and its law school. He worked briefly for the Federal Housing Administration before borrowing money to help found Rouse Co. in 1939, a mortgage brokerage firm. During World War II he served with the US Navy, then returned to Maryland and erected an early shopping mall in Baltimore in the 1950s. Having built Rouse Co. into the largest publicly held development corporation in the USA, he retired in 1979. In 1982 he founded the Enterprise Foundation, using some of his fortune to seek innovative ways to provide housing for the poor.