Magnificent Mile
The Magnificent Mile ( German "splendid mile" ) is the shopping and promenade in Chicago , Illinois . It lies between the Chicago River and Lake Shore Drive and forms the northern part of Michigan Avenue.
The street is a wide boulevard with exclusive shops, museums, restaurants and elegant hotels. Luxury stores include Bloomingdale's , Saks Fith Avenue , Tiffany & Co. , Louis Vuitton , Giorgio Armani, and Chanel . 900 North Michigan Shops and Water Tower Place are huge shop-in-shop buildings with retailers , theaters, and restaurants . The former has around 70 stores, the latter over 100 stores, including Marshall Field's and Lord and Taylor department stores .
The ascent of the street began after the Michigan Avenue Bridge was built in 1920. The former residential street was transformed into a shopping mile and has been lined with skyscrapers ever since . The first were the 30-story Wrigley Building (1920), the adjacent 22-story London Guarantee Building (1923), the 109-meter-high Allerton Hotel (1924), the 141-meter-high Chicago Tribune Tower (1925), the 143-meter high Medinah Athletic Club (1929, now Hotel Inter-Continental ) and the 172-meter-high 919 North Michigan Avenue commercial building (1929).
A new construction boom added the 100-story, 344-meter-high John Hancock Center in 1969 and the 262-meter-high Water Tower Place in 1976 . The 900 North Michigan Building was opened in 1989, and the Park Tower , 257 meters high, in 2000 (→ see: List of the tallest buildings in Chicago ) .
On North Michigan Avenue is one of the oldest buildings in Chicago, built in 1869, the Old Water Tower (dt. Old water tower ). The limestone building, reminiscent of a castle from the 13th century, is a Chicago landmark and is now home to Chicago's tourist information center. Just steps away is the Catholic Loyola University's Water Tower Campus . It houses the departments for business administration and law .
As the flow direction of the Chicago River was reversed to keep the river clean and to feed with clean water from Lake Michigan , the level of Michigan Avenue was raised by one floor. Some of the local traffic runs under the street, and many homeless people spend the night there.
Web links
- Chicago's Magnificent Mile
- North Michigan Avenue History (en)
- Interactive Map of North Michigan Avenue (en)
Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 40.3 " N , 87 ° 37 ′ 27.2" W.