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Merchandise Mart
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==History== ===Construction and context=== [[Image:Merchandise mart construction 1929.jpg|thumb|Merchandise Mart under construction, 1929]] [[File:Photography by Victor Albert Grigas (1919-2017) 00389 Chicago Loop Christmas time - developed March 1970 (37458766170).jpg|thumb|Merchandise Mart in late 1969]] In 1926, a westward extension of double-deck [[Wacker Drive]] increased development on the south [[Bank (geography)|riverbank]]. In 1927, Marshall Field & Co. announced its plans to build on the north bank opposite Wacker Drive. The site, bordered by Orleans Street, [[Wells Street (Chicago)|Wells Street]], Kinzie Street, and the [[Chicago River]], was formerly a [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] trading post and the site of [[Chicago and North Western Railway]]'s former [[Wells Street Station]], abandoned in 1911 in favor of the [[Ogilvie Transportation Center|Chicago and North Western Passenger Terminal]].<ref name="Marchitecture"/> With the railroad's [[air rights]], the site was large enough to accommodate "the largest building in the world".<ref name="History">{{cite web| url=http://www.merchandisemart.com/marchitecture/history.html| access-date=2007-07-10| title=History of the Mart| publisher=merchandisemart.com| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070602052539/http://www.merchandisemart.com/marchitecture/history.html |archive-date=2007-06-02}}</ref> Removing the train yard supported the [[Chicago Plan Commission]]'s desire to develop and beautify the riverfront. 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 [[groundbreaking]] on August 16, 1928, along with architect Ernest Graham. [[General contractor]] John W. Griffiths & Sons brought building construction into the [[Machine Age]] through the use of techniques "ordinarily used in the construction of big dams."<ref name="Building"/> Cement arriving by boat was lifted by [[Pneumatics|compressed air]] to bins {{convert|75|ft|m|-1}} 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]].<ref name="Marchitecture"/><ref name="OfficeRetail"/> With a foundation footprint of nearly two square city blocks, the building required 29 million bricks, {{convert|40|mi|km|0}} of plumbing, {{convert|380|mi|km|-1}} of wiring, nearly {{convert|4|e6cuyd|m3}} of concrete, {{convert|200000|cuft|m3}} of stone, and 4,000 windows.<ref name="Marchitecture"/><ref name="OfficeRetail"/> [[Bethlehem Steel]] fabricated much of the 60,000 tons of [[steel]].<ref name="Bethlehem">{{cite web|url=http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=945 |access-date=2007-07-22 |title=Bethlehem Steel: The Rise and Fall of an Industrial Giant |publisher=The Historical Society of Pennsylvania |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080127192659/http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=945 |archive-date=2008-01-27 }}</ref> An estimated {{convert|7.5|mi|km|-1}} of corridors and over 30 elevators were included in the construction.<ref name="Marchitecture"/><ref name="Lot">{{cite news| title=A lot of Merchandise Series: 20TH CENTURY CHICAGO| url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4518645.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505114903/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4518645.html| url-status=dead| archive-date=May 5, 2016| date=October 22, 1999| last=Kennedy| first=Christopher G.| work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The total cost was estimated at $26 million.<ref name = Langton>James Langton, "End of the house that Joe built". ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'' via the ''[[Ottawa Citizen]]'', March 22, 1998: A10.</ref> ===Ownership=== The Merchandise Mart opened on May 5, 1930, just east of Chicago's original [[trading post]], [[Wolf Point, Chicago|Wolf Point]].<ref name="OfficeRetail">{{cite web| url=http://www.merchandisemart.com/officeretail/about.html| access-date=2007-07-19| title=Merchandise Mart Office Retail| publisher=merchandisemart.com| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061025004147/http://www.merchandisemart.com/officeretail/about.html| archive-date=2006-10-25}}</ref> The building realized Marshall Field’s dream of a single wholesale center for the nation and consolidated 13 different warehouses. It was purchased in 1945 or 1946<ref name="NPNLFtO">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/16/garden/new-pieces-new-looks-for-the-office.html?|title=New Pieces, New Looks For the Office|access-date=July 13, 2010|date=June 16, 1998|author=Giovannini, Joseph|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref name=CKCTPTWOTOFB>{{cite news|author=Feuerstein, Phyllis|title=Christopher Kennedy Chicago's The Place To Work On The Other Family Business|date=August 22, 1993|page=8|work=[[Chicago Tribune]]}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{Cite news|title=CHICAGO MART GETS LOAN; $12,500,000 Mortgage Is Placed With Equitable Assurance| work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/08/06/113127328.html?pageNumber=25|access-date=2020-10-08|language=en}}</ref> and it is said that his initial capital was $1 million, though records say his original mortgage was $12.5 million, roughly half of what it had cost to construct the complex.<ref name=Langton/> E. Stanley Klein, a good friend of Marshall Field and Joseph Kennedy, brokered the building's sale. At the time Klein was a partner of Field and together they started Fieldcrest Mills.<ref>{{Cite news|title=BIG 'MART' BOUGHT BY JOSEPH KENNEDY; Chicago's Merchandise Block Is Purchased From Marshall Field's| work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/07/22/94857614.html?pageNumber=32|access-date=2020-10-08|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=E. STANLEY KLEIN, 82, OF J.P. MAGUIRE & CO.| work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1976/02/09/75573815.html?pageNumber=30|access-date=2020-10-08|language=en}}</ref> 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.{{fact|date=March 2021}} No documentary evidence of this agreement exists. The building revenues became a principal source of Kennedy family wealth, often used for political campaign funding.<ref name=Langton/> In 1998 the Kennedys sold the property to [[Vornado Realty Trust]] as part of a larger $625 million (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|.625|1998|r=1}}}} billion in current dollars) transaction.<ref name=kennedysale>{{cite news|title=Kennedy Family Selling Merchandise Mart To Vornado Realty|date=January 26, 1998|work=[[Chicago Tribune]]|page=3}}</ref> When it was sold, the Merchandise Mart was also the Kennedy family's last remaining operating business.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB885768544663024500|title=The Kennedy Clan Decides To Cash In Last Big Business|first1=Mitchell|last1=Pacelle|first2=David D.|last2=Kirkpatrick|first3=Calmetta Y.|last3=Coleman|publisher=Wall Street Journal|date=January 26, 1998|accessdate=May 4, 2021}}</ref> That year, Vornado acquired MMPI for $450 million cash and a $100 million-plus stake in Vornado.<ref>{{cite web| date=January 26, 1998| url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/01/26/kennedy-family-selling-merchandise-mart-to-vornado-realty/| title=Kennedy Family Selling Merchandise Mart To Vornado Realty| work=[[Chicago Tribune]]| agency=[[Bloomberg News]]}}</ref><ref name="Emporis">{{cite web| url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=merchandisemart-chicago-il-usa| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061209162216/http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=merchandisemart-chicago-il-usa| url-status=usurped| archive-date=December 9, 2006| access-date=2007-07-19| title=Merchandise Mart, Chicago| publisher=[[Emporis]]}}</ref> As of 2007, the building was valued at $917 million.<ref name="crains1">{{cite web| first=Thomas A.| last=Corfman| date=February 21, 2007| url=http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20070221/NEWS12/200023946/merchandise-marts-value-soars-in-9-years| access-date=2016-02-17| title=Merchandise Mart's value soars in 9 years| work=[[Crain Communications|Crain's Chicago Business]]}}</ref> ===Expansions and renovations=== [[File:Chicago River from Lake Street bridge.jpg|thumb|A night view of the building's surroundings along the [[Chicago River]]: Among the buildings and structures shown are (left to right) Left Bank at K Station (300 North Canal), 333 North Canal, [[Kinzie Street railroad bridge]], [[350 West Mart Center]], Merchandise Mart, [[300 North LaSalle]], [[Franklin Street Bridge]] and part of [[333 Wacker Drive]].]] The Merchandise Mart was modernized in the late 1950s and 1960s. In 1961 the Indian chiefs were removed and replaced with concrete plates, of minimal note to onlookers as skyscrapers did not rise on the north side of the river as predicted. In 2014, some of the carvings were found in a suburban backyard and auctioned.<ref>{{cite web| title=Lost Pieces of Merchandise Mart Found in a Suburban Garden| url=http://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/2014/05/22/lost-pieces-of-merchandise-mart-found-in-a-suburban-garden/| publisher=Chicago Architecture| date=May 22, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| title=Suburban Woman Selling Indian Heads That Once Adorned Merchandise Mart| url=http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/05/26/for-sale-two-indian-heads-which-used-to-adorned-merchandise-mart/| work=[[WBBM-TV|WBBM News]]| date=May 26, 2014}}</ref> In 1962, an entrance [[canopy (building)|canopy]] was constructed over the south for vehicle use. In 1977, [[Skidmore, Owings & Merrill]] designed the [[350 West Mart Center|Chicago Apparel Center]], on the west side of Orleans Street, which increased the Merchandise Mart’s total floor space to {{convert|6.2|e6sqft|m2}}. Plazas, [[esplanade]]s, and overlooks employed the waterfront location for pedestrian use. In 1988, [[Helmut Jahn]] designed an enclosed pedestrian walking bridge over Orleans Street connecting the Mart and the Apparel Center.<ref name="History"/> 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.<ref name="Beyer"/><ref name="ChicagoL">{{cite web| url=http://www.chicago-l.org/stations/merchandise_mart.html| title=Merchandise Mart| date=May 15, 2006|publisher=chicago-l.org}}</ref> On the south facade, the drive-through canopy was removed and two smaller doorways aside the main entrance added. Display windows, painted over during the earlier modernization campaign, were restored with clear glass to showcase merchants' wares.<ref name="Building"/><ref name="Beyer"/> New main and corner entrances were added to the rear facade, and the loading dock that occupied the north portion of the first floor of the river level was removed in order to use the bottom deck of North Bank Drive. Improvements to the lobby included restoration of the original glass [[curtain wall (architecture)|curtain wall]] over the entrance, shop fronts, and reception desk using terrazzo floors and wall sconces influenced by the original design.<ref name="Building"/><ref name="Beyer"/> The project was completed in 1991. In 2007, the building received [[Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design|LEED]] for Existing Buildings Silver recognition.<ref>[http://www.greenprogress.com/green_building_article.php?id=1408 The Merchandise Mart Chicago Receives LEED Silver Certification] greenprogress.com.</ref>
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