Ross's insight was that the form and scale of his Wilshire strip should attract and serve automobile traffic rather than pedestrian shoppers.

Major retailers such as Desmond's,[6] Silverwoods, May Co., Coulter's, Harris and Frank, Ohrbach's, Mullen & Bluett, Phelps-Terkel, Myer Siegel, and Seibu eventually spread down Wilshire Boulevard from Fairfax to La Brea.

These building forms were driven by practical requirements but contributed to the stylistic language of Art Deco and Streamline Moderne.

Ross had invented the car-oriented urban form — what Reyner Banham called "the linear downtown" model later adopted across the United States.

As wealth and newcomers poured into the fast-growing city, Ross's parcel became one of Los Angeles's most desirable areas.

Acclaimed as "America's Champs-Élysées,"[8] this stretch of Wilshire near the La Brea Tar Pits was named "Miracle Mile" for its improbable rise to prominence.

[9][a] Landmark buildings past and present, as well as some of the well-known businesses lining Wilshire during its main period as a retail center of Los Angeles (1930s–1960s).

Architects: MWC = Morgan, Walls, & Clements, WB = Welton Becket & Associates Styles: AD = Art Deco, Ch = Churrigueresque, ︎SCR = Spanish Colonial Revival, SM = Streamline Moderne Italics indicate demolished buildings.

[2] The Miracle Mile North HPOZ primarily consists of single-family residences which are uniform in scale, massing and setbacks, the majority of which were built from 1924 to 1941.

[3] Los Angeles Metro's D Line subway is being extended along Wilshire Boulevard to the Veterans Affairs Hospital, from its current terminus at Western Avenue in Koreatown.

In late 2008, Measure R passed, releasing $10 billion in reserve funds to start work on public transit projects in Los Angeles County.