Abstract

Frieden and Sagalyn note that, in the 1970s, a city's favorite solution to solving its problems was to build a mall. Although in the complete chapter (Downtown, Inc.: How America Rebuilds Cities, MIT Press) the authors focus on four case studies of varying political and social conditions, this selection contains only the most prominent example of a downtown retail success story, Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace. In developing the marketplace, Boston's leadership wanted to find a developer who could create a feasible retail project while preserving the architectural merit and historic character of the market buildings. James Rouse more than fit the bill, with his nerve and skill to "fit a modern retail operation inside the walls of 150-year-old warehouses on a crowded site in the heart of the city." Rouse was an optimist who believed that "the development business primarily consists of finding a way to overcome crises." This selection offers valuable insights not only into a complicated, pioneering downtown redevelopment project, but also about one of the country's most innovative and courageous developers.

Download PDF

Citation

Frieden, Bernard, and Lynne Sagalyn. "Entrepreneurial Cities and Maverick Developers." In Classic Readings in Real Estate and Development. Ed. Jay M. Stein. Washington, D.C.: Urban Land Institute, 1995.

Each author name for a Columbia Business School faculty member is linked to a faculty research page, which lists additional publications by that faculty member.

Each topic is linked to an index of publications on that topic.