Chicago merchandise mart
These are basically the industry buildings in which there are many wholesale showrooms and each of these has close proximity to others that belong to the same in$u3try. Ph sh lesale shkwrokms ara benebited from different types of trade shows and other similar market events that take place here. These showrooms are mostly occupied by tenants and they can easily participate in the various types of trade events that occur at the merchandise mart. The merchandise marts provide ample opportunities to the traders that carry out business activities here and some specialized services like dental and medical practice buildings, gift buildings, jewelry buildings, toy buildings etc are also offered. The difference between merchandise mart and market center is that market centers are the merchandise marts that allow trading in multiple industries.
Chicago merchandise mart:
There are overall three market centers in United States and Chicago Merchandise Mart is one of them. This merchandise mart is located at 222 Merchandise Plaza in Chicago, which lies in the state of Illinois. This merchandise mart was opened in the year 1930 and an idea about the size of this merchandise mart can be easily had from the fact that the floor area is 372000 square meters, which is of course very huge. At the time of opening of this merchandise mart, it was the largest building not only in United States but also in the whole world. It was earlier owned by Marshall Field Family. The look of this merchandise mart has been made fascinating by use of floodlights. The Chicago merchandise mart is still the leading wholesale and retail building that is visited by approximately 20000 tenants and visitors every day.
Construction architecture and interior:
The building of Chicago Merchandise Mart is so huge that it is having its own ZIP code, which is 60654. The building was designed by the famous architectural firm of city Graham, Anderson, Probst and White. The construction of building was started in the year 1928 and it took three years to complete the construction work. The artifacts of this building are same as that of Chicago Board of Trade Building and the cost of overall construction of Chicago Merchandise Mart was estimated at $38 million. The building remained to be the largest in the world till 1943, when Pentagon replaced it. The technique that has been used in the construction of this building is same as is used in the construction of big dams. All the heavy construction machines like giant concrete mixers ; conveyor belts etc were used for constructing the building. The length of corridors of building is about 10 Kilometers.
The Chicago merchandise mart is also famous for its architecture and integrated deco art styles were used by its designer Alfred Shaw. These styles were influenced by the skyscrapers, departmental stores and warehouses. The building provides ample open space for the pedestrians and the display windows are framed with bronze. This provides the typical departmental look to the building. The central tower of the Chicago merchandise mart is 25-storied. So far the interior of the building is concerned, it has a very beautiful and spacious lobby, which is made of eight marble piers that are square in shape. The storefronts of all the aisles are embossed with bronze that enhance the beauty of aisle and attracts all the visitors. The floor of the merchandise mart looks as if a carpet has been placed and is made of orange and green Terrazzo. The main interior theme of the mart is Chevron and it is continued in the columns also.
Occupants and other aspects:
About 50% of the floor space is occupied by different types of wholesale showrooms. There are also selected showrooms that are opened to the wholesalers only and other non-selected showrooms have access to the general public. One of the most admiring facts of the Chicago merchandise mart is that the wholesale showrooms are not like general showrooms where there are rack and shelf displays and instead, the showrooms at mart provide ample opportunity to the tenant to go for applications as per the requirements. This is the reason why all the showrooms are not alike. There are also stores in the mart that offer items either as single or a collection of similar articles. The other portion of the store offers different types of services like installation, preservation, designing etc.
The Chicago merchandise mart is located south to the Franklin Street. To the north of the mart lies the Hubbard Street that hosts many nightclubs and eateries. The northwest corner of the merchandise mart is occupied by Kinzie Chop House, which is quite popular among various celebrities in the city. Thus, it can be said that the Chicago merchandise mart offers great surroundings. One surprising fact about the Chicago Merchandise Mart is that it is not rectangular in shape. This is because the building of the mart was constructed over the Chicago River, after the Bascule bridge was constructed. Between the Southeast corner of the building and the lower level, lies the control house for the Wells Street Bridge. Other important aspect about the Chicago Merchandise mart is that the building slants in the same way as the Franklin Street.
The central and the corner towers of the mart are lighted in a beautiful way that gives beautiful white look to the building at night. As per the tradition, the color of lights is changed to green in the middle of month of March for the Saint Patrick Day. For the cancer awareness month, the color is then changed to Pink. What makes the mart more fascinating at night is the fact that the color of mart lighting at night matches with the Sears Towers antennae and the color of the top floors of the on Center. There is also an elevated train station at the Merchandise mart that served the main line of the North division. At present, the station is served by the Purple and the Brown lines. The trains visiting the station at the Chicago merchandise mart are longer than 6-car train and the station is one among four stations in the city that can berth such trains.
Other Articles
