Magnificent Mile

The Magnificent Mile also abbreviated as The Mag Mile is the Northernmost high-end stretch of Michigan Avenue, located North of the Chicago River. A major thoroughfare, it is also considered a neighborhood on its own, according to some sources.

Overview
The Magnificent Mile is the main shopping street in Chicago. Running on a North-South axis, it connects Downtown / Chicago Loop to the Gold Coast Historic District, and serves as a boundary between Streeterville and River North districts. Being the most prestigious hub in the Near North Side, it is lined with lavish department stores, mall shops, museums and many prominents landmarks (the most important one being undoubtedly the famous Chicago Water Tower). Of the three original upscale Chicago's shopping district, it is the only one to have survived to this day (the two others being State Street and Rush Street).

Notable buildings in the area includes :


 * The Wrigley Building
 * The John Hancock Center
 * The Chicago Water Tower
 * The Chicago Avenue Pumping Station
 * The Tribune Tower

History
After the Great Chicago Fire, State Street (anchored by Marshall Field's) in the Loop was the city's retailing center. The convenience of mass transit including streetcars and elevated trains, supported a retail corridor along State Street from Lake Street to Van Buren. By the 1920's commuter suburbs began to have significant retail districts. Prior to the bascule bridge construction, swing bridges across the river were open for ship traffic during half the daylight hours. The opening of the Michigan Avenue Bridge in 1920 created a new commercial district. After 1950, suburban development and reduced the role of the Loop's daily significance to many Chicagoans as downtown retail sales slipped. However, the Magnificent Mile kept a luxury shopping district close to the central business district.

The Magnificent Mile was actually part of Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago. It was constructed during the 1920's to replace Pine Street, which had formerly been lined with factory and warehouses near the river and fine mansion and rowhouse residences farther north. The earliest building constructions varied in style, but challenged new heights in construction.

After the Great Depression and World War II, Arthur Rubloff and William Zeckendorf bought or controlled most of the property along this stretch of the avenue and supported a plan by Holabird & Root construct new buildings and renovation of old ones that took advantage of new zoning laws. Soon the property values driven by the luxury shopping districts were pricing out the nearby artists of Towertown, just south west of the Chicago Water Tower. Although they acquired most of the property rights at still at Depression-level prices, they successfully developed and promoted the Magnificent Mile as the most prestigious addresses in the city, a distinction which continues to hold today. This success spurred continuing erection of more high-rise apartments and new investment along the Magnificent Mile and throughout the Near North Side.

The opening of the 74-story Water Tower Place in 1975 marked the return of Chicago to retailing prominence. By 1979, the State Street corridor commercial corridor had lost its commercial vitality and was closed to street traffic for renovation including sidewalk widening until 1996.