2023-12-02 07:00:26
From the New York Fifth Avenue until the Elysian Fields of Paris passing through the londinense Oxford Streetand without forgetting the Berlin Ku’damm Avenue o to Via Montenapoleone in Milan. He Barcelona Passeig de Gràciawhich meets 200 yearsrubs shoulders with well-known citizen arteries from around the world irremediably linked to the luxury consumption. All of them house emblematic buildings promoted, as in Barcelona, by the bourgeoisie or the great fortunes of the 19th and 20th centuries, and have been privileged witnesses of the course of history.
Fifth Avenue (New York, USA)
In the new york grid There is no more iconic and globally known artery than the Fifth Avenue10 kilometers that cross Manhattan from south to north from the parque de Washington Squarein it West Villageuntil the 143rd Street, Harlem.
Since 1896 Benjamin Altman opened the first commercial building, followed by Lord & Taylor in 1914, Saks Fifth Avenue in 1924 and Bergdorf Goodman in 1928 and 1929, the trade It became a central element from Quinta. And today is the commercial corridor in between Bryant Park y Central Parkdominated by luxury stores The further north you go, the one that today is more associated with the emblematic avenue, which has recently been crowned again as the most expensive street in the world in a study by Cushman & Wakefield.
This is also where the efforts of the current mayor’s office are focused to continue stimulating the tradewhich started with initiatives such as the conversion on three Sundays in December of several blocks into zona peatonal. And it is part of a larger plan to “reimagine the future of the Fifth”, an initiative in which the City Council has partnered with four private organizations. The plans that should create new traffic patterns y public transportation, space for bicycles and widened sidewalks. And those plans are not expected to be known until the middle of next year, with 2025 as the goal to present a specific design.
The Quinta is, in any case, more than Tiffany’s o to Torre Trump. In the area parallel to Central Park The remnants of the residential grandeur that great families such as the Vanderbiltwho with their mansions sowed the seeds so that this area would end up being known as ‘Millionaire’s row.
In addition, on the Fifth there are the buildings of the Flatiron and the Empire Statethe headquarters of the New York Public Library and the Rockefeller Centerthe St. Patrick’s Cathedral and hotels like St. Regishe Peninsula and, at the gates of Central Park, the Plaza. And also welcomes the call ‘Museum Mile’although you have to travel more than 1.6 kilometers to visit its nine temples of art and culture, including the Metropolitanhe Guggenheimthe Neue Gallerylos city museums and the Barrio and, the most recently opened, African Art. Informa: IDOYA AAIN
Champs Elysées (Paris, France)
Los Elysian Fields of Paris are considered as one of the most monumental avenues in Europe. Baptized with that name in 1864 in reference to the place in hell in Greek mythology where virtuous souls rested, they represent the main axis in the west of the French capital. They unite the Concorde square and the Tuileries garden with the Arc de Triomphe. He Elysee Palace, seat of the French presidency, is also located on a corner in the initial part of the avenue, although it is accessed through a parallel street. Due to his fame and tourist characterrepresent one of the most expensive and coveted axles by investors in the world.
The economic evolution in recent decades has favored the giants of the luxury sector and the investment funds from countries of the Gulf They dispute the hegemony of their real estate stock. On the one hand, the grupo Louis Vuitton –property of Bernard Arnault, the richest man on the planet– recently announced the acquisition of a monumental building, at number 103 and with an area of about 6,000 square meters. There it will install a large store, offices, a hotel… It will add to the multiple properties that LVMH already had on the avenue. On the other hand, the family of Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thanihas up to eight properties on the Champs Elysées, some of which are empty.
These changes have occurred to the detriment of classic places, linked to popular culture. A part of the famous Parisian cafes have been replaced by fast food franchises. Furthermore, the mythical Cine Marignan, opened in 1933, has recently announced its closure. Known once the avenue of the seventh art in Paristhe Champs Elysées have been converted into the luxury street. Informa: ENRIC BONET
Oxford Street (London, United Kingdom)
The actual Oxford Street was known for centuries as Tyburn Roada name he received from homonymous river that passed through the area. To this day there are still references to this name in streets and businesses and, at the western end of the avenue, there is a plaque on the ground in memory of the Tyburn Treean enclave in which numerous public executions between the 14th and 18th centuries.
He commercial nature It only took hold in the mid-19th century, when they settled progressively small retail businesses of textiles, furniture, footwear, food or jewelry. At the end of the century, the department store, which expanded little by little during the first decades of the 20th century. An expansion that was only interrupted during the Second World Wara period in which many of its buildings were affected by the german bombings.
Several of the shops and offices on this street were IRA target in the last three decades of the 20th century, causing dozens of injuries in half a dozen attacks, as well as the death of an agent from the anti-explosive unit of the Metropolitan Police in 1981. Currently the street has an extension of 1.2 miles (1.9 kilometers)houses nearly 300 stores and is visited by more than 500,000 people every daywhich makes it the busiest shopping street in Europe. Among the most emblematic businesses are the warehouses John Lewis (whose first store opened on this street in 1864) and Marks&Spencer (since 1930). Report: LUCAS FONT
Ku’damm Avenue (Berlin, Germany)
There have been several attempts to take away the Kurfürstendammo la Ku’dammas everyone calls it, the title of main commercial artery of Berlin. It gained the rank of avenue, 3.5 kilometers long, in 1886. It was consolidated as such in the 1920s and 1930s, in close competition with the Prussian and more central Unter den Linden. Los allied bombings They punished their emblematic buildings, homes, restaurants and theaters. But after the defeat of the Third Reich and with the citizen division, it became a vital oasis of corsetry. western sectorl, the so-called free Berlin. The Memorial Churchthe church whose original tower was amputated by the bombs, now serves as the nerve center between the most central end of the Ku’damm and the Tauentzienstrasseas the extension of that citizen artery is called and which culminates in the famous KaDeWethe shopping center par excellence of West Berlin.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and with the accelerated reactivation of the eastern sector, attempts to duplicate the Ku’damm scheme in what was a communist area multiplied. The most notable case was that of the Friedrichstrassethe street that crosses Unter den Linden Avenue, or Under the Linden Trees. It had in its favor the direct proximity to the classic monumental center of the capital. And also the decision of the Galeries Lafayette to open its only branch in Germany on Friedrichstrasse. The German subsidiary of the French stores was inaugurated there a few years after reunification, ready to overshadow the KaDeWe. Next year it will permanently close its doors, while the rest of Friedrichstrasse is dying, between closed stores or seeking to reorient themselves. Text: GEMMA CASADEVALL
Via Montenapoleone (Milan, Italy)
In Italia There are dozens of emblematic and very popular urban arteries. But the most expensive and luxurious one has no rival. It’s located in Milanin the so-called fashion quadrilateral, and it is called Via Montenapoleone (a name that refers to the Napoleonic domination of the city). Since the 1950s, this street has become one of the most important commercial avenues in the world.
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So much so that, this year, a study that analyzed almost a hundred cities in the world, carried out by the well-known Cushman & Wakefield institute, came to the conclusion that the Montenapoleone road is the most expensive in Europe and the second in the world. The reason: the average price per square meter costs here 18.000 euros.
This is easily perceived when taking a short walk along this street, where ocher buildings with quiet interior patios from the 18th and 19th centuries house some of the main Italian and international fashion brands. Which makes walking here a true spectacle of unbridled luxury. Text: IRENE SAVIO
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