Location: River North
Top Things to do in River North
Things to do in Chicago, Illinois (IL): The Best Shopping
The windy city is a cornucopia of modern art, fine dining, cutting edge comedy, and die-hard sports fans. Snap a photo of your reflection in the silver Cloud Gate sculpture at Millennium Park before heading to Grant Park to get hit with the refreshing spray of Buckingham Fountain. There are dozens of museums and theater companies in Chicago, so a cultural experience is never hard to find. You’re sure to laugh your head off at the Second City Theater, the professional launch pad of many famous comedians.
Restaurants in Chicago
1. Architech Gallery
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 2 reviews
2. Maya Polsky Gallery
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 1 reviews
3. Zolla/Lieberman Gallery
4. Ann Nathan Gallery
5. Binny's Beverage Depot
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 59 reviews
Chicago family owned since 1948, Binny's Beverage Depot is the midwest's largest retailer of wine, spirits, beer and cigars. Binny's offers more than 30,000 items in their 35+ Illinois locations. If you can't find it at Binny's, it's probably not worth drinking.
6. Merchandise Mart
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 142 reviews
The largest commercial building in the world. First two floors are essentially a mall, and the rest is business offices.
Reviewed By 866TaylorB - Chicago, United States
If you are a native Chicagoan or have ever visited the city, you probably walked past or drove past the Merchandise Mart. But have you ever spent any time inside the building? Have you ever been inside the world's largest commercial building, a structure so large that it once had its own zip code, a building so massive that it has been known as "a city within a city?" Located at 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, at Kinzie Street between Orleans and Wells, on the Chicago River just east of Chicago's original trading post at Wolf Point, the junction of the river's North and South Branches, in downtown Chicago, the Merchandise Mart is a leading retailing and wholesale destination that hosts 20,000 visitors and tenants per day. Built by Marshall Field & Company and owned by the Kennedy family for half a century, it centralized Chicago's wholesale goods business by consolidating architectural and interior design vendors and traders under a single roof. Opened in 1930, the 25-story Art Deco style structure is spread across two square city blocks and includes 4.2 million square feet of floor space. Its construction required 29 million bricks, 40 miles of plumbing, 380 miles of wiring, 4 million cubic yards of concrete and 4,000 windows. Visitors also marvel at the 7.5 miles of corridors and 30 elevators. In 1977, the Chicago Apparel Center was opened on the west side of Orleans Street, increasing the Merchandise Mart's total floor space to 6.2 million square feet. Since 2010, the design center showroom has been open to the public. The retail shopping area, named The Shops at the Mart, opened in 1991 and includes apparel shops, beauty services, news stands and bookstores, financial services, travel services, telecommunications services, specialty food and wine stores, photo services, a dry cleaner, shoe shine stand and food court. In addition, a 521-room Holiday Inn is housed in the Apparel Center. Since 1969, the Merchandise Mart has hosted the annual National Exposition of Contract Furnishings with over 1,000 exhibitors and 50,000 attendees, the largest trade show of his kind in North America. Oh, the building isn't just big. The first floor is beautiful, too. An architectural masterpiece. The lobby features artist Jules Guerin's frieze of 17 murals which graphically illustrate commerce throughout the world. Is a visit to the Merchandise Mart a once-in-a-lifetime experience? My wife and I vividly recall going on a day-long shopping trip with a home designer to buy new furniture for our apartment. One glitzy showroom after another. One purchase, a grand mirror for our entryway, took two weeks to be shipped from England. At the Merchandise Mart, everything is first-rate.
7. Carl Hammer Gallery
8. Elements
9. Gallery KH
Located in the heart of Chicago's River North Arts District, Gallery KH presents an outstanding collection of significant contemporary artists working in a variety of styles and media.
