At 871 feet (265 m) tall, it is the eleventh tallest building in Chicago as of 2023[update] and the 59th-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.

Bloomingdale's occupies the rear of its wide, six-story atrium, with other luxury shops and restaurants filling the remaining spaces.

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.

A large 12-story parking garage, with retail on the ground level and a medical clinic atop, occupies the rear half of the block, facing Rush Street.