Philip M. Klutznick's work as a real-estate developer in the second half of the twentieth century had a profound effect on the Chicago region. He was instrumental in the development of Park Forest as a community planned around a shopping center in the late 1940s. His subsequent involvement in the creation of Oak Brook and Old Orchard Shopping Centers related to his understanding of the important role that shopping centers could play in suburban life.

Old Orchard, designed as an outdoor, unenclosed shopping mall with a good mix of high-quality competitive merchants, was meant to attract a year-round patronage of people who would enjoy walking around the mall as part of their experience of shopping.

Klutznick brought this perspective into Chicago in 1973, when Marshall Field's asked him to help develop a new store on the Near North Side:

Several sites considered for the Marshall Field store proved too costly or were unavailable. But one location near the north end of Michigan Avenue seemed to have real possibilities. It was owned by the liquor firm of Joseph Seagram and Company, whose principal stockholder was the Sam Bronfman family. Sam was an old friend whom I used to see in New York when I was working at the United Nations.

Klutznick arranged the sale of the Seagram property for $10 million, as well as additional property from the John Hancock Life Insurance Company. On the site, Klutznick supervised development of Water Tower Place.