North Michigan Avenue: A Building Book from the Chicago Historical Society

A thoroughfare unlike any other, North Michigan Avenue is lined with fashionable shops, smart eating establishments, luxurious hotels, and imposing office buildings--in an inviting mixture of architectural styles. Here is an appealing overview of the boulevard, from its beginnings as a repository of stores and warehouses, to its rebirth after the Great Fire, to its resurrection after the Depression. John Stamper's text discusses the origin of the North Michigan Avenue Bridge and covers the stupendous buildings from the late 1900s on. Photographs of landmarks such as the Wrigley Building, the elegant Chicago Tribune Tower, and the Harvester Building contrast with the structures of the 1960s to the present, constructed in giddy economic anticipation after the doldrums of the Depression. The John Hancock Building, the Pottery Barn, and other modern marvels of retail and commerce--with architectural cues from earlier periods--are all here. This journey will inspire both those discovering the "Magnificent Mile" and old-time Chicago aficionados.

About the Author: John W. Stamper is associate professor, School of Architecture, and director, Rome Studies Program, University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Chicago's North Michigan Avenue: Planning and Development, 1900-1930 (University of Chicago Press, 1991). Images from the Chicago Historical Society and Hedrich Blessing.