Merchandise Mart - Chicago, IL - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

The MERCHANDISE MART (commercial exhibits open to wholesale trade only), 222 N. Bank Dr., is the largest building in the world. An enterprise of Marshall Field and Company, it was completed in 1930 as a wholesale market; more than 5,600 lines of department and general store goods are displayed here by wholesalers, manufacturers, and importers from all parts of the country. Built in part over the Chicago and North Western tracks, the $30,000,000 structure, designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White, covers two city blocks. Six and one-half miles of store front corridors give access to 93 acres of floor space, an area almost two-thirds as large as the Chicago Loop. This concentrated commercial city houses a working population of 25,000, has its own "L" station, bank, post office, telegraph and railroad ticket offices, large restaurants, and retail shops.

Set back from the river bank along a wide private street, its southern facade is visible for blocks, an example of dignified beauty in modern business architecture. Concealed lighting of the massive symmetrical structure forms a beautiful composition of light and shadow in the Chicago night scene. Fifteen murals by Jules Guerin depicting market scenes in foreign countries decorate the lobby walls.

This behemoth of a structure would now be called "art deco" in style, rather than the "modern business architecture" that the guide labels it as. The building's construction combined with the great depression put the Marshall Field's Company in financial straits and they were forced to sell this building in 1945 (after the guide was published) for 12.5 million dollars - a huge loss. The buyer was Joseph Kennedy and the building stayed in the Kennedy family for over 50 years. They sold it in 1998 for 450 million dollars and 100 million in stock to the Vornado Corporation. Quite a tidy profit on their original investment. The building remained the largest structure in the world until 1943 when the Pentagon was completed and took its place in the number one spot.