←
Design
Completed in 1930, the building was designed by the architectural firm Graham, Anderson, Probst & White. Designer Alfred Shaw integrated art deco stylings with influences from three building types—the warehouse, the department store and the skyscraper. Its design features a distinctive façade adorned with setbacks, vertical fluting, and decorative friezes that capture the essence of the Art Deco movement. Ribbon piers define the windows, and the building's chamfered corners, minimal setbacks, and corner pavilions disguise the edges of the mass and visually reduce bulk.
History
The Merchandise Mart was initially built as a wholesale facility for Marshall Field & Co., providing a centralized location for a vast array of goods. 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. 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
Location
222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL
