Nobody really believes in the American city," developer James Rouse once lamented. "We have lived so long with old, worn-out, ugly places that we have become anesthetized to their condition." Rouse, to be sure, was a believer. After pioneering the suburban shopping mall, he came up with a revolutionary idea to lure people away from it. His strategy was to revitalize the decaying inner city his developments had helped denude--not with a gleaming, modernist makeover but by restoring original buildings and bustling public spaces. Rouse's "festival marketplaces" like Faneuil Hall in Boston and Harborplace in Baltimore, Maryland, not only brought shoppers...
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