Merchandise Mart
The Merchandise Mart (or the Merch Mart, or the Mart) is a commercial building located in downtown Chicago, Illinois. When it was opened in 1930, it was the largest building in the world, with 4 million square feet (372,000 m2) of floor space. The Art Deco structure is located at the junction of the Chicago River's branches. The building is a leading retailing and wholesale location, hosting 20,000 visitors and tenants per day in the late 2000s.
| Merchandise Mart | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Type | Mixed |
| Architectural style | Art Deco |
| Location | 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza Chicago, Illinois |
| Coordinates | 41.8884°N 87.6355°W |
| Construction started | August 16, 1928 |
| Completed | 1930 |
| Opening | May 5, 1930 |
| Owner | Vornado Realty Trust |
| Height | |
| Roof | 340 feet (103.6 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 18 base, 25 tower |
| Floor area | 4,000,000 square feet (372,000 m2) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Graham, Anderson, Probst and White with the firm's Alfred P. Shaw as chief architect |
| Main contractor | John W. Griffiths & Sons |
Built by Marshall Field & Co. and later owned for over half a century by the Kennedy family, the Mart centralized Chicago's wholesale goods business by consolidating architectural and interior design vendors and trades under a single roof. It has since become home to several other enterprises, including the Shops at the Mart, the Chicago campus of the Illinois Institute of Art, Motorola Mobility, the Grainger Technology Group branch of W.W. Grainger, and the Chicago tech startup center 1871. It was sold in January 1998 to Vornado Realty Trust.
The Merchandise Mart is so large that it had its own ZIP Code (60654) until 2008, when the Postal Service assigned the ZIP Code to part of the surrounding area. In 2010, the building opened its Design Center showrooms to the public.