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Old Posted May 31, 2012, 6:00 PM
Rizzo Rizzo is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Chicago
Posts: 7,280
Quote:
Originally Posted by the urban politician View Post
^ I hope.

I hope that an entire generation of fortresses along the Mag Mile get renovated. Neiman Marcus is up there among some of the worst, but I'm also thinking of Water Tower Place (unlikely to happen) and perhaps even North Bridge, although the Mag Mile side of the latter one isn't too bad. I would love to see more upgrades along the likes of TopShop, which really interacts with the street will and adds dynamism. The All Saints store is nice as well.

Neiman Marcus just looks so....1989. My wife loves shopping but we hardly ever go in there and a part of me thinks that this is because the exterior is so uninviting.
Northbridge is the king of all precast in that area...6 blocks worth. Excellent retail presence at street level, but I wish they could have used blind windows at least to break up all that solid walls and a bit more marble, brick, metals...something not so heavy. Doubt there will ever be a reclad, but we can expect to see some work on the mall with the purchase of the neighboring building for expansion.

Quote:
Originally Posted by nomarandlee View Post
Also Grand east of Michigan needs to be decked over a half a block and the stores spruced up because right now that section looks like it leads to a slum alley.
It absolutely needs to be decked all the way to St. Clair. As is, the street and stair configuration is bad for business. No one wants to go down Grand that way because it looks unfriendly. I'm sure businesses would improve drastically if a plaza was built with a nicely done staircase leading down. The only business covered up would be Grami, but the underground vibe of it would probably make it all the more interesting. The new restaurant proposed by Blackies could have also taken advantage of a multi-level configuration.
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