My girlfriend loves ARITZIA! Also public bathrooms during COVID were a life saver. Very clean and AC was a great break from the Chicago summer heat. read more

Great affordable mall. The layout is a little confusing, but the signs and touch screen maps make it easy to navigate. Excellent selection of shops, in this mall you'll find the typical affordable shops whereas a few others on Mag Mile are higher end. For that reason alone, this has to be one of the most popular malls. read more

Great mall!! Upon entry super clean and well later out. 2) plenty of store from Abercrombie to Victoria Secret and Armani. Quite a variety of you like to shop. 3) did not keep Track of the floors but I made it up to the 5th one thru the elevator. 4)did not make it to the Lavatory so I cannot comment on it. 5)food court is pretty decent and quite to choose from 6) great place for shopping. I would definitely come back. read more

Great selection of the usual mall stores. Most stores seem small for the see, ie: Sephora. For the volume of traffic, it needs more restrooms. Especially during holiday season. Fair selection of restaurants and coffee shops. read more

As tourists we had a fun time shopping here. We went here in the evening hours. Loved the Adidas store. Spent some time in the Sephora store checking out fragrances and checked out some other stores. I read that there are plenty of good spots to eat in here as well, but we didn't try any. We only got a coffee on the way out. If you're near the Tower and in the mood to shop go check it out. read more

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For as busy as it is, I really like this mall! They have The Limited (my favorite!) and many other stores I enjoy. They have a great food court experience and a rotating list of new stores. I rarely walk out empty-handed. It's in the heart of the city, so I find it's easy to pop over when running other errands. It does get crowded, of course, but the escalators and elevators are always up and running! read more

This place has a lot of choices for those of you who haven't been here let me explain further, basically there's a lot of different restaurant stands for you to choose from in this place. On this visit I chose to eat at Chicago grill I had the Italian beef with fries it wasn't the best I've ever had but not the worst either. read more

Water Tower Place - Shopping Centers Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

This was a must go to location when we went to Chicago. Definitely a tourist location. Loved the 7 levels of shopping. The cascading water feature in the mall is really nice. The glass elevator is a cool site to check out. They also have charging stations on ever level and chairs to relax while you get ready to explore the next floor. The shopping selection is great. They have high end stores to stores that are budget friendly. Definitely a place to check out. read more

Sandra GreenBay Rivera · March 17, 2018 There's a cafe named Macy's taste bar cafe and they have the best tuna pattie, at all store I went to customer service was great, but the ladies at the cafe are wonderful. Angelica and Alexis are truly wonderful, thanks for awesome customer service. Will be back read more

I'm obsessed with this mall. Everything you need they have. You definitely need to give yourself a few hours to this mall. We ended up eating lunch here. Their food court is amazing. We ate at Food Life. Food is fresh and delicious. You can pretty much create whatever you want. Lots of Asian inspired dishes. read more

Loved the cascading unique water feature in this mall. You could see that everyone enjoys it because so many people were commenting on how beautiful it is as they were riding the escalator. read more

Water Tower Place - The water feature at Water Tower place. - Shopping Centers Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

This mall looks quite unassuming from the outside at street level. It wasn't til I wandered in that I realised that it's a big vertical mall! Unusually, it extends upwards rather than sideways. The entrance escalators flank a nice innovative fountain/water feature with shooting jets. There's a also a large LEGO model of the nearby Water Tower Chicago landmark. I'm not really into shopping but still found enough 'boy shops' to keep me happy - LEGO, Marbles: The Brain Shop to name 2 of my favourites. I also picked up a bao for a quick lunch snack from the ground level. Otherwise there's a great looking and smelling food court on the lower level. read more

Loved loved this place beautiful clean and convenient, I know it's a very busy area and the parking sucks so expensive parking with hundreds of people walking with you, but it's a great place to go in summer as winters gets pretty cold as it's close to the lake read more

Good God is it hard to get around in this place! Talk about non-functional shopping, how the hell am I suppose to power shop when there's a people jam on the escalators? Move to the right! Did they leave that out of the Suburbanite's Guide to the City? So. Frustrating. One plus: The Limited, Forever 21, Banana Republic, Macy's, White House/ Black Market (thanks for the tip Krys!) are all in one spot. read more

This mall is excellent! Great, convenient location in downtown Chicago on Michigan Ave. It is eight stories of fabulous! The mall is spacious, clean, bright and a must do! The clear elevator adds to the appeal and fun of this mall. From your basic favorite stores such as Bath and Body Works, Abercrombie, American Eagle and Macy's to high end and specialty shops like Henri Bendel, Coach, Francesca's and more, shopping is a pleasure. They have plenty of snack or dining options as well. read more

I am not the shopping type of person. I didn't enter any stores or attempted to go shopping at all here. However, I like that they have cellphone charging stations in each floor, free wifi and comfortable seating to make my wait better haha. read more

We live 45 min south of Water Tower Place but it's a must visit once a year. Many floors with all the most popular shops. We also love the food court variety. Tip: If you don't like crowds don't visit this mall at Christmas time. Each level is best to access via escalator. However once you get out of line it is difficult to get back in line as people can be rude and don't allow others to get in the in front of them in the escalator line. There are elevators in the center for those that need it but those are impossible to get to stop and sometimes are full once they do. The mall is also in walking distance to all the other Michigan ave shops. Wearing comfy shoes are a must!! read more

I don't know why its so popular here. There are not too many shops options. I felt like any mall in California could beat this place. The shopping mall design is so out of date and I felt like shopping in a historical mall. Def not worth my time visiting. The only great thing is that there are charging station every floor so I could just drop my BF there and shopped on my own. read more

Been coming here and it is a cool place specially around Christmas time, is nicely decorated and pretty cool. Down side is crowded around the same holiday but I should've known. No biggie though. I came here with a list of Christmas gifts and left with non of them scratched out. See I was there to buy the gifts for family and friends and came out with some gifts for myself lol. I will get them the gifts though. WTP nice place, cool store and prices to go with them read more

***This is a nice enough mall, but it feels pretty much like any other nice downtown mall; some of this mall's standouts include a big American Girl Place, a Lego store featuring Lego creations of famed Chicago architecture and a nice water fixture that runs parallel to the escalator*** I am not sure what the parking situation is at this mall. read more

Something about a mall in a city is at once both brilliant and entirely depressing. If one must be inside a giant building for one's one-stop-shopping, Water Tower is a good place to do it. There are several high end stores (and then there's Macy's...), boutique shops, designers, and while it tends towards more stores for women, there are occasional things for men (Lacoste, Adidas, etc) to be found as well. That's all well and good but what inspired this review, true to form, was the loo. It's what every mall loo should be. Every stall is big enough for all your bags and crap to fit in there with you and that alone is a mini miracle. They also installed those fantastic Dyson electro-suck hand dryers, which bumps everyone up in my book. read more

I often refer to this place as the mall....lol It's a MALL! It's swanky...and the food court is immaculate...it's so good! i love coming here....akira, betsey, forever, sephora....it's all i need! read more

Bread and Water Tower place . . . way too pricey for me. And the food court is weirdly set up and kind of annoying. Wao Bao on the first level - ugh, read my review of that. read more

Absolutely outrageous policies here. I traveled over two hours to this mall with my younger sister for her 16th birthday to be told we could not shop here. Despite the fact that I am 18 years old I was not allowed to accompany her to shop here. Never have I had an experience where I needed wristbands to shop in a mall. It was extremely upsetting to each of us- considering this was an annual birthday tradition. My great grandma initially started this tradition and the fact that we had no one with us over 21 was a painful reminder of our loss. It was humiliating and I will never be returning. read more

This is a very busy mall. I was not a fan on how it was set up logistically with the escalators being one of the only ways up or down a floor. There is an elevator but only express from top to bottom. It had everything you expect on a mall except maybe a theater, but maybe that is an Arizona thing??? It was overall it is regulated well. Nice downtown experience and close to my hotel. read more

Who doesn't like 8 floors of shopping. The water tower is a great place to hang out with trendy stores to shop at! The Marbles store needs to be bigger because everyone wants to play there! The lego store always has something crazy of course made of legos. There's great restaurants to eat at! read more

Water Tower Place - Hanging out with friends at the Water Tower! - Shopping Centers Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Here your standard run of the mill mall in an 8 level, atrium casing. If you're a visitor, there are very few stores here that you won't find elsewhere. Great for suburban tourists I guess, or if you want a pretzel from Auntie Anne's. Water Tower Place has mixed usages including luxury condos, the Ritz-Carlton hotel, and office space. Oprah is a full-time resident in the luxury condos. read more

I got my new furniture here in this mall. I bought a couch that has a table. It's a leather type with a color of black. It looks durable. I hope that it will last long. It's expensive because it's leather. The staff were nice and assisted me well. They are so persistent in talking and explaining about their products. They give me a little bit of a discount. They deliver my order right after I pay it to the counter. I'll just tell them my address. Before I went home I went to the grocery store. I bought a lot of groceries including chips, cookies, soap, drinks and more. After I went home the couch was in the living room and my husband oragined it well. He's so happy with the design of our couch. Highly recommend this place. read more

The other day I was on Michigan, had just gotten paid, and was really in the mood to shop. I had walked many, many blocks before getting there, so I wanted to stop in Water Tower to fulfill that one-stop-shopping experience. I forget how much I hate all malls. This one is more pretentious than most, and is horribly laid out. Yes, it has all the usual mall stores, along with the department stores on either side, but I just was not feeling it the second I walked through the door. I really wanted to go to Victoria's Secret, more to look around than to buy anything, but the trek up the esclators did me in. Next time, I'll just keep walking. read more

If you haven't learned to share or play well with others, stay away! Not the place to come if you're looking to get in and get out quickly. However, with that being said, it isn't impossible to come in with a set agenda and leave within half an hour. You just need to come on a weekday evening, the crowds are less then. There's really no need to stop here if you're one of those hyper sensitive people who think the mall belongs to them, as all but a handful of stores located here have other locations across the city. So, if crowds freak you out and people walking at their leisure irritate you to no end, just go elsewhere. Seriously. If you're willing to swallow your pride, however, The Water Tower can provide a nice place to browse and shop. There are a number of great clothing stores here, all under one roof. There is also a fantastic Teavana location and a great C.O Bigelow. The Lush location here is nice too, friendlier staff than the others throughout the city. read more

Pluses: Good food court. Great people watching. Some good stores- BR, Gap, Forever 21, Macy's and lots of make-up places. Minuses: prices, slowest elevator on the planet. and parking SUCKS. If you're a tourist, you probably won't mind. But for locals, nah so much. But if you're local, you've already probably gone here. Why am I tellin' you? read more

This is the coolest place to look out over the city. Our waitress were very friendly and attentive. We had a great bottle of Chardonnay and the hummus plate. It was just the right sized serving for two people. The cheese was little and smooth. The hummus was the perfect balance with the pita. Olives galore..... Perfect. read more

This is a gigantic mall. It's sort of fancy by virtue of being on Michigan Street but after about 20 minutes you'll be just as exhausted as you get at the regular 'ole mall you usually go to. There's a few unique stores in here, and a few rotating pop up shops that come in and out that are fun to check out. And yes, the American girl store is at the base of the mall. So that's cool if you are 7 and/or you like spending a ton of money on doll clothes. But yeah, it's a mall. read more

The last time I visited Watertower place prior to this visit was years ago. Let's just say it coincided with the grand opening of Planet Hollywood. Structurally and decoratively, this mall has not changed in the least. There is nothing low brow about this eight level mall in the least. All the heavy hitters are present. Anchored by a gigantic Macy's, there are plenty of small, expensive boutiques for fashion and jewelry, a big mix of high end stores (Coach, Fossil, Lacoste, Bebe, Vera Bradley,) and a handful of mainline mall stores. Across the way is the Broadway Playhouse, which is a small, intimate, and good place to see a live show. If you are looking to grab a bite to eat, your choices are extensive. My personal favorite is the casual Foodlife, but also include others such as Harry Carry's, M Burger, Wow Bao, and Freshii. read more

I like the stores...I hate the elevators. Take the stairs? All I do at the gym is the stair master. I don't need to do more stairs. And who the hell do you think you are judging me via Yelp? You don't know me! I bet you wish you did. This isn't even a review about Water Tower Place. I don't care! I'm sure you've been there, why are you reading my review!? The Adidas store is pretty cool. Macy's perfume sellers are a little pushy. The food court looks really good...should've stopped in there. Next time. read more

I need to remember to avoid this place like the plague from November - January. With that said, I don't HATE Water Tower. I'm even hating Macy's a bit less these days. A bit less. I do however hate 90% of the shoppers. And, I kind of love FoodLife. Alas, Water Tower will never be the same since Marshall Field's left, and American Girl is not helping any. And, just when you think you are going to bitchslap some douche from Elgin super psyched about going into the city, (only to spend the day at a mall and spending their cash at Hollister and Abercrombie? Dude.) Remember this: you can enter the Ritz Carlton for a cocktail through the mall and get away from the common riff-raff. read more

I work in the 'hood, so I end up in Water Tower a lot more than I'd like to. After every bad experience, I say 'never again', but the lure of the proximity gets me every time. It seems like everyone who works in a store over here thinks they're some retail god since they work on the Ave. Funny story, I do too, but I'm not a jackass about it. There's a nice selection in Water Tower, lots of big stores, but the customer service is ridiculously bad. If I didn't work in the neighborhood, there's not a chance I'd shop here of my own volition. read more

I am starting to love water tower more and more lately. The choice of stores has been great and there is just something about shopping downtown that feels awesome isn't there? The fountains at the front of the mall, with the escalators, are my favorite. I am always impressed with how clean this mall is and how many conveniently located bathrooms they have. That really is one of the best parts. They have a nice food court also. The variety of stores is great too. I recently learned they have discounted parking after 5 PM! I think it is $10. Sure beats fighting and paying those parking boxes. read more

This mall is located on the Magnificent Mile, in the heart of downtown Chicago. I have seen many celebs shopping here, or just walking past. The mall itself, is beautiful and modern. You can either take the escalators, or elevators to your desired location. Water Tower Place is a well thought out mall with upscale stores to suit anyone's taste. read more

So, I grew up in Des Moines. And like most/all Iowans, as a kid I made many trips to Chicago for vacations/ choir tours, etc. As a young teenager, I have very vivid memories of shopping at Water Tower Place back in the mid-late 80's and thinking it was the COOLEST EXPERIENCE EVER. I remember feeling quite fancy and very "big city". Now? Um, not so much. I'm now an established Chicagoan and to borrow my mother's phrase, a committed "new urbanist". (definition of "New Urbanist": I shop local, avoid burbs) That means that Water Tower is no longer a place of magic, and now its simply my local mall. Talk about burst bubbles, huh? Yeah, the layout is a mess. I do like the fountain, and I always love me some Wow Bao. I've found some great shoes in the Macy's clearance rack, and I love that they have a Billibong store. I've also discovered this quirky arty store on the 3rd (?) floor that has some really cool stuff. But when I come here, I don't linger. I find that I get really frustrated with the length of time it takes me to get from A to B. That, paired with battling tourists, teenager thugs, and little girls clutching creepy dolls, makes me beeline toward the door. But I'll be back. It's better than driving to any of the megamalls in the burbs. UGH. In the meantime, I try to remember WT as I used to think of it... read more