Merchandise Mart
Looking past the LaSalle Street Bridge and the Helene Curtis Building, at the Merchandise Mart, billed as the world's largest commercial building. When opened in 1930, the Merchandise Mart or the Mart, located in Chicago, IL., was the largest building in the world with four million square feet (372,000 m²) of floor space.
Previously owned by the Marshall Field family, the Mart centralised Chicago's wholesale goods business by consolidating vendors and trade under a single roof. Massive in its construction, and serving as a monument to early 20th century merchandising and architecture, the Art Deco landmark anchors the daytime skyline at the junction of the Chicago River branches. With upper levels bathed in coloured floodlight, the structure stands out against darker downtown buildings in night views. The building continues to be a leading retailing and wholesale destination, hosting 20,000 visitors and tenants per day.
It is so large that it rates its own zip (post) code - 60654! It stands 104m high. But it looks more like a downtown Federal penitentiary than a wholesale shop! It was succeeded as the building with the largest floor space by the Pentagon in Arlington, VA., in 1943 but by this measure is still the sixth largest building in the world.
Merchandise Mart
Looking past the LaSalle Street Bridge and the Helene Curtis Building, at the Merchandise Mart, billed as the world's largest commercial building. When opened in 1930, the Merchandise Mart or the Mart, located in Chicago, IL., was the largest building in the world with four million square feet (372,000 m²) of floor space.
Previously owned by the Marshall Field family, the Mart centralised Chicago's wholesale goods business by consolidating vendors and trade under a single roof. Massive in its construction, and serving as a monument to early 20th century merchandising and architecture, the Art Deco landmark anchors the daytime skyline at the junction of the Chicago River branches. With upper levels bathed in coloured floodlight, the structure stands out against darker downtown buildings in night views. The building continues to be a leading retailing and wholesale destination, hosting 20,000 visitors and tenants per day.
It is so large that it rates its own zip (post) code - 60654! It stands 104m high. But it looks more like a downtown Federal penitentiary than a wholesale shop! It was succeeded as the building with the largest floor space by the Pentagon in Arlington, VA., in 1943 but by this measure is still the sixth largest building in the world.