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'Whatever Happened to Tivoli?'
Columbia's planners envisioned a town center evocative of Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens, above. Below, in Columbia's early days, Bill Finley, left, James W. Rouse and Mort Hoppenfield discuss plans for the town.
(By Morten Juhl -- Associated Press)
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Under the gun, he said, to live up to other commitments the developer made in getting approval to build a city from scratch -- building and selling thousands of houses, luring businesses and building offices -- all on deadlines.
"We had to hit our targets," Finley said in a telephone conversation. "The financial model required it."
To that end, Wilde Lake and Lake Kittamaqundi were dug and filled; residential and office construction proceeded swiftly. The mall opened in 1971 to much fanfare.
"To a person who only has a hammer, every problem looks like a nail," Finley said. "This was a shopping center company. What do you do when you want to make something happen? You build a shopping center."
Finley left Columbia in 1972, moving on to another Rouse project. The economy was sagging. Columbia never got its Tivoli.
"It was an idea that everybody loved," Finley said. "But nobody loved it enough."
Finley regrets that, as he regrets other unfulfilled promises: a public transit system and the pledge to build 10 percent of Columbia as affordable housing.
"The money guys took over," he said.
There may be, however, one more chance to capture the magical town center.
There are 51.7 acres left, near Symphony Woods, where a promise might still take shape. Business leaders, community activists and others will come together during the charrette in a way that perhaps hearkens to the way Rouse once brought together architects and planners with educators, sociologists, religious leaders and others.
General Growth Properties Inc., which acquired Rouse last year, will be there, too, with its vision for the future of Town Center.
Local leaders see it as an exciting moment.
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