Merchandise Mart
Merchandise Mart | |
---|---|
Graham, Anderson, Probst and White with the firm's Alfred P. Shaw as chief architect | |
Main contractor | John W. Griffiths & Sons |
The Merchandise Mart (or the Merch Mart, or the Mart) is a commercial building located in
Built by
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.[7][8] In 2010, the building opened its Design Center showrooms to the public.[9]
History
Construction and context
In 1926, a westward extension of double-deck
James Simpson, president of Marshall Field & Co. from 1923 to 1930 and chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission from 1926 to 1935, turned the first shovels of dirt at
Cement arriving by boat was lifted by compressed air to bins 75 feet (20 m) above the ground, with gravel and sand delivered by railroad cars to conveyor belts and transfer elevators. Giant mixers provided wet concrete to skip hoists in vertical towers that were extended as the building rose. Continuously employing 2,500 men and as many as 5,700 men altogether, the construction project lasted a year and a half into the early months of the Great Depression.[1][11]
With a foundation footprint of nearly two square city blocks, the building required 29 million bricks, 40 miles (64 km) of plumbing, 380 miles (610 km) of wiring, nearly 4 million cubic yards (3,100,000 m3) of concrete, 200,000 cubic feet (5,700 m3) of stone, and 4,000 windows.[1][11] Bethlehem Steel fabricated much of the 60,000 tons of steel.[12] An estimated 7.5 miles (10 km) of corridors and over 30 elevators were included in the construction.[1][13] The total cost of construction was estimated to be $26 million.[14]
Ownership
The Merchandise Mart opened on May 5, 1930, just east of Chicago's original trading post, Wolf Point.[11]
The building realized Marshall Field’s dream of a single wholesale center for the entire nation and consolidated 13 different warehouses. It was purchased in 1945 or 1946, depending on the source,[15][16] by the Kennedy family through Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc. (MMPI), and managed by Sargent Shriver. Kennedy's purchase price was reported to be either $12.5 or $13 million,[17] and it is said that his initial capital was $1 million, though records say his original mortgage was $12.5 million, this was roughly half of what it had cost to construct the complex twenty years earlier.[14]
The building's sale was brokered by a good friend of Marshall Field and Joseph Kennedy, E. Stanley Klein. Klein at that time was a partner of Field and together they started Fieldcrest Mills.[18] [19] Klein maintained that Kennedy's bargain price was predicated on an oral agreement between Field and Kennedy that after the sale the building would be donated to the University of Chicago and that Kennedy would take the tax deduction,[citation needed] although as an oral agreement no documentary evidence of this exists.
The building revenues became a principal source of Kennedy family wealth, including being a source of political campaign funding.[14]
The Kennedy family sold the complex center property to Vornado Realty Trust in 1998 as part of a larger $625 million ($1.2 billion in current dollars) transaction.[6] When it was sold, the Merchandise Mart was also the Kennedy's family's last remaining operating business.[20] That year, MMPI was acquired by Vornado for $450 million cash and a $100 million-plus stake in Vornado.[21][22] As of early 2007, the building was valued at $917 million.[23]
Expansions and renovations
The Merchandise Mart was modernized in the late 1950s and 1960s. The Indian chiefs were removed and replaced with concrete plates in 1961, of minimal note to onlookers as skyscrapers did not rise on the north side of the river as predicted. Some of the carvings were later found in a suburban backyard and auctioned in 2014.
In 1977,
After a 10-year, $100 million modernization in the late 1980s that included public utility upgrades, Beyer Blinder Belle's commission in 1989 was to create additional perimeter entrances and restore the display windows, main entrance and lobby.[4][26] On the south facade, the drive-through canopy was removed and two smaller doorways aside the main entrance were added. Display windows, painted over during the earlier modernization campaign, were restored with clear glass to showcase merchants' wares.[3][4]
New main and corner entrances were added to the rear
In November 2007, the building received
Building
The Merchandise Mart was designed by the Chicago architectural firm of
Architecture
Designer Alfred Shaw integrated art deco stylings with influences from three building types—the
The south corner pavilions are of greater height than the north corner pavilions. The building is open at the pedestrian level with bronzed framed
The lobby of The Merchandise Mart is defined by eight square
Referred to as "business boulevards", two wide 650 feet (200 m) long corridors with terrazzo floors in the upper levels featured six and one-half miles of display windows. Building regulations specified identical entrances along corridors but tenants could personalize the individual floor space. Excepting the corridors, elevator halls, and exhibition space on the fourth floor, the 5 acres (20,000 m2) of each upper floor was "raw space" with concrete floors.[3]
Artwork
"To immortalize outstanding American merchants", Joseph Kennedy in 1953 commissioned eight bronze busts, four times life size, which would come to be known as the Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame:[11][13]
- retail magnates Frank Winfield Woolworth, Marshall Field and Aaron Montgomery Ward
- Sears, Roebuck and Companyfame
- advertiser A&P grocery chain founder George Huntington Hartford.
All of the busts rest on white pedestals lining the Chicago River and face north toward the gold front door of the building.
"Art on theMART"
"Art on theMART" is a digital art display begun in 2018. It provides a 2.5 acre "canvas" (2 football fields) for digital artwork projected on the Chicago River facing facade of the Merchandise Mart. It featured works from the nonprofit organization Arts of Life. The project is intended to be the largest digital art projection in the world and is scheduled to occur over thirty years with annual showings initially between March and December. In 2019 it was expanded from five nights a week to every night. Displays begin 15 minutes after sunset and loop for two hours. Obscura Digital studio initially installed 34 projectors to allow the rotating roster of artists to display their work.[31][32][33]
Surroundings
Dominating the skyline in the south end of the
The Mart is not rectangular in shape, having been constructed after the bascule bridges over the Chicago River were completed. The control house for the double decked Wells Street Bridge stands between the lower level and the southeast corner of the building. The Franklin Street Bridge stands at the southwest corner of the building, at the junction of Orleans Street and Franklin Street. The building slants at the same angle as Franklin Street, from southeast to northwest along Orleans Street.
Exterior lighting
A heritage of lighting the structure finds the central and corner towers, along with the columns between each window on the setbacks, bathed nightly in an upwardly focused white light.
Red and green lights are used during the
Nighttime lighting on the Mart typically matches the colors of
Green building practices
Under
In 1990, the Mart Center began using Green Seal-approved green cleaning products and the next year implemented a recycling program, which today includes all forms of paper products, glass, light bulbs, batteries, aluminum and construction materials. In 1996, the Mart Center became one of the first major property owners in downtown Chicago to enter into an agreement with the district cooling system now known as Thermal Chicago, thus contributing to the national effort to reduce the discharge of ozone-damaging CFCs.
In 2006, MMPI joined Clean Air Counts, a voluntary initiative to reduce smog forming pollutants and energy consumption in the Chicago area. Part of the campaign strategies included utilizing only low VOC cleaning products, paints and building materials, as well as energy efficient lighting and alternative workplace transportation options. To date, the Mart Center has reduced pollution by 264,018 pounds (119,757 kg), the largest reduction by a commercial building.[citation needed]
In 2006, the Mart Center recycling program saved over 13,000 trees and recycled nearly 11 million pounds of waste, while water conservation efforts saved 5.5 million US gallons (21,000 m3) of water. More than eight percent of the estimated 10,000 people working at the Mart walk, bike or take public transportation; to encourage greener methods of transportation, the Mart expanded bicycle storage capacity to more than 200. In 2009, MMPI converted all stationery to a one hundred percent post-consumer recycled product. [citation needed]
The Mart has nine LEED-certified showrooms, with five others on their way to LEED certification.
Uses
Commerce
Wholesale showrooms occupied 50% of the usable floor space as of 2007. Select showrooms are open only to wholesalers, with others accessible to the general public. Unlike stores with traditional shelf and rack displays, entire usable rooms are created, providing consumers an opportunity to compare form and function between applications and manufacturers.
A portion of the stores offer items for purchase singly or as a collection, while others offer design services, preservation, renovation, or installation. In addition to being a resource for architects and decorators, the Mart also has featured award-winning designs as selected by the American Institute of Architects. Catering to suppliers, on-site firms specialize in providing professional services for market research projects.
In 1931, Marshall Field and Company lost $5 million, followed by $8 million in 1932.[28] The wholesale division was greatly reduced and Field's reduced its space in the Mart from four floors to one and half. The Mart continued to display the latest trends in home furnishings within the showrooms and trade shows. The company recovered late in the decade, but did not return to all previously occupied space.
In 1942,
A retail shopping area, named The Shops at the Mart, opened in 1991 and includes apparel shops, beauty services, bookstores and
The Apparel Center houses the 521-room Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza River North hotel, the offices of the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago campus of the
Trade fairs
Since 1969, the Merchandise Mart has been home to the annual National Exposition of Contract Furnishings, known as NeoCon. With over 1,000 exhibitors of contract and commercial furnishings, and 50,000 attendees, it is the largest trade show of its kind in North America.[42]
Since 2006 the Merchandise Mart has hosted the
Mass media
Radio
Before the location even opened,
Hugh Downs contributed to the Burr Tillstrom children's show Kukla, Fran and Ollie from the NBC studios after the network picked up the program from WBKB. The Captain Midnight radio program was broadcast from the Mart from 1942 until 1945.
WMAQ and WMAQ-TV moved to the NBC Tower in 1989, though NBC sold WMAQ radio to Westinghouse Broadcasting two years earlier). WMAQ's former sister FM station, now WKQX, stayed at the Merchandise Mart until 2016, when it moved to NBC Tower itself..[48][49] The nineteenth floor is currently vacant.
Television
On January 7, 1949, NBC station WNBQ commercially debuted its television broadcast schedule on channel 5, with a minimum of two hours of programming per day. April 15, 1956, is remembered as "C-Day" at WMAQ-TV, and was described by Broadcasting-Telecasting magazine as "a daring breakthrough the black-and-white curtain." With Mayor Richard J. Daley looking on, NBC President David Sarnoff operated the controls as Channel 5 became the world's first all-color TV station as "Wide, Wide World" was broadcast to 110 NBC-TV affiliated stations across the country. The color conversion project cost more than $1.25 million with advertising costing $175,000. On "C-Day", three skywriting planes flew over the city, trailing streams of red, green and blue smoke.
WMAQ-TV first installed color equipment in late 1953, with the
Although WMAQ-TV has since moved to NBC Tower about a mile away, and for the most part the 19th floor of the Mart has been turned into office space, one former tenant (Bankers Life and Trust Company) maintained a remnant of the original studios as their video and multimedia department.
Local
Chicago 'L'
Built in under four months and opened on December 5, 1930, the
The station complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The turnstiles are located within the building on the second floor, while the platforms are connected to the east side of the building. The northbound platform is accessed by an overhead bridge or elevator. It was rebuilt in 1988, prior to the Wells Street Bridge reconstruction in 1989.
The Merchandise Mart housed the CTA's headquarters on the 7th floor from 1947 to 2004.[22][26]
Cultural involvement
This section is in prose. is available. (August 2016) |
- Owing to the expanding postwar economy and family, the owners began offering tours in 1948. Architecture and design interest groups continue to offer scheduled tours.[39]
- The Mart hosts the annual Art Chicago activities.[50]
- Chicago Marathon routes have taken runners past the structure, typically on Wells Street.
In popular culture
- The 1948 film Call Northside 777 was made in Illinois and the Mart is seen from newspaper offices on Wacker Drive.[51]
- The lobby appeared in the movie The Hudsucker Proxy as the interior of the Hudsucker Company headquarters.[22][52]
- In 1956, the eight-minute short subject film The Merchandise Mart used the Mart's name and covered in detail the building's interior and operations.[51]
- When his late-night NBC talk show was performed in Chicago during the first week of May 1989, David Letterman called the Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame "the Pez Hall of Fame" because the combination of busts atop the tall vertical pedestals resembled the candy's dispensers.[53]
- In the 1993 film The Fugitive, U.S. Marshals pinpoint the location of Dr. Richard Kimble when they hear a CTA train conductor announce, "Next stop, Merchandise Mart" in the background of a recorded phone call.[54]
- The Mart was depicted as the Candor headquarters in the 2012 novel Insurgent by Veronica Roth.
See also
- Art Deco
- Chicago architecture
- Fulton House, Chicago
- Interior design
- List of largest buildings in the world
- New York Merchandise Mart
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "Marchitecture". merchandisemart.com. Archived from the original on February 5, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
- ^ a b "Architects". merchandisemart.com. Archived from the original on October 24, 2006. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Building of the Mart". merchandisemart.com. Archived from the original on 2008-05-11. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
- ^ a b c d "Architects - Beyer". merchandisemart.com. Archived from the original on 2008-04-10. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
- ^ "How 1871 Has Changed Chicago's Startup World One Year Later". WMAQ-TV. 2013-05-13. Retrieved 2014-06-08.
- ^ a b "Kennedy Family Selling Merchandise Mart To Vornado Realty". Chicago Tribune. January 26, 1998. p. 3.
- ISBN 978-1741047677.
does Merchandise Mart have its own area code.
- ^ Lyons, Margaret (April 25, 2008). "ZIP It, ZIP It Good". Chicagoist. Archived from the original on January 6, 2016.
- ^ Grant, Barri Leinier (March 10, 2011). "A Guide to Shopping the Merchandise Mart". Chicago.
- ^ a b "History of the Mart". merchandisemart.com. Archived from the original on 2007-06-02. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
- ^ a b c d "Merchandise Mart Office Retail". merchandisemart.com. Archived from the original on 2006-10-25. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
- ^ "Bethlehem Steel: The Rise and Fall of an Industrial Giant". The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on 2008-01-27. Retrieved 2007-07-22.
- ^ a b Kennedy, Christopher G. (October 22, 1999). "A lot of Merchandise Series: 20TH CENTURY CHICAGO". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on May 5, 2016.
- ^ a b c James Langton, "End of the house that Joe built". The Sunday Telegraph via the Ottawa Citizen, March 22, 1998: A10.
- ^ Giovannini, Joseph (June 16, 1998). "New Pieces, New Looks For the Office". The New York Times. Retrieved July 13, 2010.
- ^ Feuerstein, Phyllis (August 22, 1993). "Christopher Kennedy Chicago's The Place To Work On The Other Family Business". Chicago Tribune. p. 8.
- ^ "CHICAGO MART GETS LOAN; $12,500,000 Mortgage Is Placed With Equitable Assurance". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
- ^ "BIG 'MART' BOUGHT BY JOSEPH KENNEDY; Chicago's Merchandise Block Is Purchased From Marshall Field's". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
- ^ "E. STANLEY KLEIN, 82, OF J.P. MAGUIRE & CO". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
- ^ Pacelle, Mitchell; Kirkpatrick, David D.; Coleman, Calmetta Y. (January 26, 1998). "The Kennedy Clan Decides To Cash In Last Big Business". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
- ^ "Kennedy Family Selling Merchandise Mart To Vornado Realty". Chicago Tribune. Bloomberg News. January 26, 1998.
- ^ a b c d e "Merchandise Mart, Chicago". emporis.com. Archived from the original on December 9, 2006. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
- ^ Corfman, Thomas A. (February 21, 2007). "Merchandise Mart's value soars in 9 years". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved 2016-02-17.
- ^ "Lost Pieces of Merchandise Mart Found in a Suburban Garden". Chicago Architecture. May 22, 2014.
- ^ "Suburban Woman Selling Indian Heads That Once Adorned Merchandise Mart". WBBM News. May 26, 2014.
- ^ a b c d "Merchandise Mart". chicago-l.org. May 15, 2006.
- ^ The Merchandise Mart Chicago Receives LEED Silver Certification greenprogress.com.
- ^ a b "Marchitecture Marshall Field". merchandisemart.com. Archived from the original on 2007-08-16. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
- ^ Pope, Elizabeth (2005-04-15). "Wall Street of Flowers". American Airlines. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-08-16.
- ^ "Marchitecture Murals". merchandisemart.com. Archived from the original on 2007-10-22. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
- ^ Johnson, Steve (February 22, 2019). "Art on theMart announces new videos for spring — part of Year of Chicago Theatre". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
- ^ Johnson, Steve (October 1, 2018). "Art on theMart kicks off with a really big-screen question: Is Chicago ready for video art?". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
- ^ BWW News Desk (April 17, 2019). "Art On TheMart To Project Seven Nights A Week Starting May 13". Broadway World. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
- ^ "A Giant Projection Screen Will Light Up the Merchandise Mart | UrbanMatter". UrbanMatter. 2017-03-13. Retrieved 2017-03-16.
- ^ "A Giant Projection Screen Will Light Up the Merchandise Mart | UrbanMatter". UrbanMatter. 2017-03-13. Retrieved 2017-03-16.
- ^ World's Largest LEED-EB Certified Building
- ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
- Sneed, Michael; Lavin, Cheryl (19 December 1983). "It's just too, too...". Chicago Tribune. Vol. Section 1. p. 28.
- ^ a b "Merchandise Mart in Chicago". chicagotribune.com. 2007-07-20.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Weber, Lauren (December 3, 2013). "Companies Say Goodbye to the 'Burbs". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
- ^ "Show Info". NeoCon. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
- ^ Davenport, Misha (April 27, 2006). "On With the Art Show -- At the Mart". Chicago Sun-Times. p. 8. Archived from the original on May 5, 2016.
- ^ CC
- ^ "WMAQ Studio F". Samuels. Retrieved April 25, 2010.
- ^ "A Tour of the 1930 NBC Studios". Samuels. Retrieved April 25, 2010.
- ^ "Birdseye, cut-away view of the NBC studios". Samuels. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
- ^ "Tour Of Our New Home!", WKQX. August 4, 2016. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
- ^ Feder, Robert. "Cumulus Media moving to NBC Tower", RobertFeder.com. November 18, 2015. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
- ^ "Art Chicago 2007". merchandisemart.com. 2007-07-19. Archived from the original on 2007-10-26. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
- ^ a b "Movies Made in Illinois". learnaboutmovieposters.com. 2007-07-10. Archived from the original on 2007-05-12.
- ^ Scheffler, Mark (July 9, 2005). "Filming at the intersection of culture and commerce". Crain's Chicago Business.
- ^ Kogan, Rick. "Letterman, City Hit It Off," Chicago Tribune, Monday, May 8, 1989. Retrieved August 26, 2020
- ^ "Script: The Fugitive - Dialogue Transcript" (PDF). Script-o-rama. May 10, 1993.
Further reading
- Chappell, Sally A. Kitt, Architecture and Planning of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, 1912–1936:Transforming Tradition, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1992
- Roth, Veronica, Insurgent, HarperCollins, New York, NY 2012