Where is the magnificent mile
WHAT IS MAGNIFICENT MILE CHICAGO LIKE RIGHT NOW? History of Mag Mile & Downtown Without Tourists
the dusabo bridge links the southern
portion of michigan avenue
with the northern portion it's a
double-deck chicago-style bascule bridge
built in 1920 before there was a
magnificent mile but the idea for this
world famous attraction
was born much earlier
what's good youtube it's louis gusto
welcome back to my channel
in this video we're talking all about
chicago's magnificent mile
from its inception all the way to how
it's doing in 2020 but first let's
rewind a bit
back to when chicago was inhabited by
native americans but after the time when
french explorers came along the chicago
river sometime in the 1780s
jean-baptiste juan du sable settled
right here in what is now known as
pioneer court he was the first
non-native settler of chicago not only
did he live here with his wife and kids
but he also
sold and traded goods marking the birth
if you will of magnificent mile now the
sales of pastries and smoked meats
weren't quite the volume of what
magnificent mild does today
but it was definitely a start
from chicago's incorporation as a city
all the way to the early 1900s
this road was referred to as pine street
and in this area where we now have an
apple store and the wrigley building
it was all factories and warehouses and
as you moved up pine street
toward the water tower that's where you
had row houses small homes
and of course mansions there was even a
neighborhood there called mccormickville
in 1909 daniel burnham and edward
bennett collaborated on the plan of
chicago
an amazing vision of what this city
would look like in the coming years one
particular part of this plan
was to take michigan from a small street
and turn it into a grand avenue with
shopping
and parks very similar to the grand
boulevards of paris
one major piece of architecture was
needed for this to come to fruition
the michigan avenue bridge later renamed
the dusable bridge
when it was completed it linked both
sides of the river the pine street name
was ditched and michigan avenue as we
know it today
was born
the 1920s saw a major boom in
construction which led
to magma's early prominence buildings
like the wrigley building
which was the first chicago office
building to have air conditioning
the palm olive aka the playboy building
the first skyscraper built
outside of the loop and the tribune
tower built as the headquarters for the
chicago tribune
its architecture was determined by an
international design contest
the original idea was to have michigan
avenue closely resemble chanzelli
in paris as far as uniform building
architecture and height you can see
evidence of this aspiration in buildings
like
the women's athletic club and the far
whale building two rare surviving relics
from the early days
of magnificent mile the 1920s were a
great time as far as business was
concerned
in this area then the great depression
hit and growth and expansion came to a
grinding halt
we now interrupt the chicago history
episode with a special message from the
shops
at northbridge on magnificent mile we
stopped at tamil bulba bar
to grab some boba i got myself a matcha
latte with plenty of boba
and we're waiting for some food from lao
se schwan
now there aren't a whole lot of options
to eat when you get on mag nile
of the options that are available this
is definitely one of my favorites
all right so we got our order from la
cheswan we got some dried chili chicken
this is a really good dish it's kind of
lower on the menu gotta look under
chicken and frogs
section of the menu you know how it is
and we got of course some white rice on
the side
go with the boba tea i'm ready to get
down
arthur rubloff was a chicago real estate
developer who played a significant role
in the development of this stretch of
michigan avenue and in 1947
he coined the name magnificent mile also
that year more than 200 million dollars
were invested
to revitalize this entire area once
again
business was good and the progress
continued over the next couple of
decades
punctuated by the construction of the
john hancock center built in 1969 the
second tallest building in the world
upon completion then again in 1975 with
construction of the water tower place
one of the first urban vertical malls
the boom continued into the 80s and 90s
with buildings like 900 north michigan
and one magnificent mile
[Music]
coming back to today how is magnificent
mile doing in late summer
early autumn of 2020 well we went on a
friday and we're still in early
september
normally magnificent mile will be
completely full of tourists
of shoppers people from all around the
city just coming to hang out
and it wasn't like that on friday we
obviously know why that's the case
we're still dealing with a global
pandemic and magnificent mile has been
the target of looting
protesting and a lot of social unrest
has really centered itself
on this portion of the city for various
reasons
the history of it the affluence there
and
the fact that it is a major touristy
spot that's going to get attention
if anything happens in the area in
response to this
we saw a very heavy police presence
pretty much
everywhere you looked along michigan
avenue above the river
there were police there were also a lot
of stores boarded up but from what i
could tell
most if not all the damage done from
looting was repaired
this was preventative boarding up so
when everyone's gone for the night
there was some protection on the windows
and on the doors
most stores were open on magnificent
mile
but a good amount were also closed for
an indeterminate amount of time they had
signs up in the window
saying we're just closed temporarily you
know keep up with us on our website or
whatever but believe it or not there are
some new things on magma
depending on how long it's been since
you've been there the chick-fil-a has
opened up now i know that's a national
chain but
i can't lie i love me a chick-fil-a
sandwich every now and again
and purple pig which is kind of like a
staple on magma
reopened in its new location so those
are a couple of things to check out
which brings me to my next point
if you are a chicagoan this is the
perfect time to go down to mag mile
especially because it's not going to be
full of tourists like it normally is
this is an area of the city
that's full of history there are so many
chicago landmarks
there are national landmarks the
architecture is beautiful
you're right along the river i mean
there's just so much to do there it's
such a chill spot to be in
so this is the perfect time to go and
also keep in mind that
these touristy areas of chicago employ
many of our fellow citizens so that
might be a reason to go down
and support as well so what about the
future with magnificent mile not
currently in the best shape
how's it looking going forward well
don't forget that this area of the city
has undergone
many hardships in its time in 1871 the
great fire burned
every single building along this road
when it was called pine street
except for the water tower the great
depression hit in the 20s
in the midst of magnificent mile rising
to prominence then the 2008 financial
crisis hit
magnificent mile bounced back from that
as well with many new stores
buildings going up and tourists coming
back to visit even though times are
tough right now i know that magnificent
mile and by extension the entire city of
chicago
is gonna bounce back strong once we get
through this rough patch
of course you're gonna see a lot of
negativity online and in the news
i just can't even imagine what instagram
would have been like during the great
depression can you imagine
the amount of negativity that would be
coming out in the comments and in the
videos
and in the news articles back then i
don't think that this is something
that's just gonna happen automatically
obviously magnificent mile is gonna have
to adapt for the times
just like they did back in the day not
only are all these challenging events
taking place right now
but more and more shoppers continue to
move to online shopping
so magma can't just be a place to go and
shop it's also going to have to be a
great destination for restaurants
for events and for all sorts of things
to do outside of the realm of shopping
one thing that i'd personally love to
see for magnificent mile moving into the
future
is for it to go car free so many cities
in europe are going car free in their
downtown areas
why can't chicago do that magnificent
mile has adapted
from quiet residential street to world
famous shopping destination
why can't it do another adaptation to
move into the future
i hope you guys enjoyed this look at the
history as well as the current state of
magnificent mile in chicago
if you did go ahead and finesse that
like button and subscribe if you're new
to the channel
i really appreciate you guys watching i
will see you next time but for now i'm
out of here
peace
