900 North Michigan

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Image:900 N mich chi 2005.jpg

900 North Michigan in Chicago is a skyscraper completed in 1989. At 871 feet (265 m) tall, it is the seventh tallest building in Chicago and the 22nd tallest in the United States. It was developed by Urban Retail Properties in 1988 as an upscale sister to Water Tower Place, one block southeast, and was the second vertical mall built along the Magnificent Mile.

The building features a large, upscale shopping mall called 900 North Michigan Shops. Bloomingdales sits at the rear of its wide, six-story atrium, with other luxury shops and restaurants filling the rest. The mall opened with Henri Bendel as a "junior anchor," since replaced by men's clothier Mark Shale. The layout of the retail area reflects lessons learned from Water Tower Place; the anchor's placement at the rear draws shoppers through the space and creates leasable space with valuable Michigan Avenue frontage, while the arrangement of escalators in parallel, rather than in zig-zags, directs foot traffic past more shops.

The luxurious Four Seasons Hotel occupies the middle floors of the tower. 900 North Michigan also contains office space, beginning at the 8th floor. Recently, parts of the office space have been converted into high-end condominiums in order to profit from the growing residential market. A large parking garage, with retail on the ground level and a medical clinic atop, occupies the rear half of the block, facing Rush Street.

The exterior of the tower is clad in limestone and green glass which reflects the light. The building has a steel skeleton on which a concrete frame was made. Because the building's materials switched half way up, cranes had to stop working while new ones were constructed for the concrete. Four lit "lanterns" atop the structure give it a distinctive skyline presence.