[2] The Mall was conceived as part of the 1903 Group Plan by Daniel Burnham, John Carrère, and Arnold Brunner[3] as a vast public space flanked by the city's major civic and governmental buildings, all built in the neoclassical style.

In the spirit of the City Beautiful movement, formerly seedy areas were transformed into a "magnificent civic center", which was supposed to be crowned by the Union Terminal at the north end of the mall, on the shores of Lake Erie.

However, the location of the station was eventually moved south and west, to Public Square, where it was finally born as the Terminal Tower.

In 2004, New York artist Brian Tolle installed For the gentle wind doth move Silently, invisibly.

The work featured eight nine-foot-tall styrofoam neoclassical urns standing atop pedestals, warped to reflect actual wind data collected from Lake Erie.