Chicago Merchant Market

Chicago Merchant Markethas been an icon in Chicago history. It was developed by Marshall Field & Co. to create a central marketplace where retailers could purchase goods under one roof. The two-block construction site is bordered by Orleans, Wells and Kanzie streets and is located at the confluence of the North and South Chicago Rivers and its major tributaries. It is located just east of Wolfe’s Point, the site of the first trading post, first hotel, first church, first three taverns and first bridge across the Chicago River. It was once the site of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad’s Wells Street Station. The Merchandise Mart will be built on the railroad’s air rights, providing a site large enough to house “the largest building in the world.”

The original designer, Alfred Shaw, conveyed a unique modern artistic concept in an Art Deco style that combines elements of three building types: warehouses, department stores, and skyscraper-like office buildings. Minimal setbacks at the building’s interior corners, roofs, and corner pavilions serve to camouflage the edges of the building’s essentially rectilinear mass, visually reducing its weight and bulk. The building is open at the pedestrian level, with a two-story glass base and oversized storefronts typical of a department store. The 25-story central tower juts out from the main building, demonstrating its affinity with corporate skyscrapers.