The Merchandise Mart: How Marshall Field Built the World's Largest Building

By Solomon Rokowsky

October 28, 2026

The Merchandise Mart in June 1968. Photo: David Wilson. Source. CC BY 2.0. Resized.

On the north bank of the Chicago River, where the river's branches meet, the Merchandise Mart takes up two city blocks. When it opened in 1930 it was the largest building in the world, with about four million square feet of floor space. It was so large that it had its own ZIP code until 2008. Today it is Chicago's main home for interior design showrooms, offices and trade shows, and it calls itself THE MART.

It was built by Marshall Field & Company as a wholesale center, was owned for more than half a century by the family of Joseph P. Kennedy, and is now in the hands of a New York real estate investment trust that has said it may sell.

A wholesale city under one roof

Marshall Field & Co. announced the project in 1927. Its plan was to gather wholesale buyers and sellers in one place instead of relying on traveling salesmen with sample cases. The site had been a railroad yard, the former Wells Street Station of the Chicago and North Western Railway, and the railroad's air rights made the site large enough. Removing the rail yard also fit the Chicago Plan Commission's wish to develop the riverfront.

The Merchandise Mart around 1950, built over a rail yard. Photo: Photographer unknown, uploaded to Commons by Chicago Joe+Jeanette Archie. Source. CC BY 2.0. Resized.

Ground was broken on August 16, 1928, and construction lasted a year and a half, into the early months of the Great Depression. Wikipedia says the work employed as many as 5,700 people in all, and used techniques normally used for dams, including cement delivered by boat and concrete lifted in towers. The building took 29 million bricks, about 380 miles of wiring and 4,000 windows. It consolidated 13 different Field warehouses.

Alfred Shaw's design

The architect was Alfred Shaw of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, a firm with a long relationship with the Field family. Shaw combined three building types: the warehouse, the department store and the skyscraper. An 18-story block holds the bulk of the floor space, and a 25-story tower rises from its southern half. Ground-level display windows with bronze frames, like a department store's, run along the south, west and east sides.

The entrance on the Chicago River side. Photo: Paul R. Burley. Source. CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized.

The tower originally had a ring of 56 terra cotta figures of American Indian chiefs around its crown. They were meant to be seen from the tall buildings that planners expected along the riverbank, and those buildings never came. The figures were removed in 1961, and some were found in a suburban backyard and sold at auction in 2014.

The tower and Art Deco portal. Photo: HaSt. Source. CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized.

The lobby and the murals

The south lobby has eight marble piers and a green and orange terrazzo floor that was designed to look like a carpet. Above it is a frieze of 17 murals by Jules Guerin, who had worked as a stage set designer. The murals show commerce and products from 14 countries, painted in red with gold leaf. The Mart's site calls the lobby a historic space and displays Guerin's frieze as its main feature.

Two long corridors on the upper floors, nicknamed business boulevards, held 6.5 miles of display windows. Each floor had five acres of raw space that tenants could fit out as showrooms.

The Kennedy years

By 1931 Marshall Field & Company was losing money. It lost $5 million that year and $8 million the next, and it cut its space in the building from four floors to a floor and a half. In 1945 or 1946 the Kennedy family bought the building through Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc., for a reported $12.5 or $13 million, about half what it had cost to build. Sargent Shriver managed it. One account says there was a handshake understanding that the building would eventually be donated to the University of Chicago, but Wikipedia notes that no documents back that up.

In 1953 Joseph Kennedy commissioned eight bronze busts, four times life size, to honor American merchants. They stand outside the building and are known as the Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame.

Busts in the Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame. Photo: HaSt. Source. CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized.

Vornado and THE MART

In 1998 the Kennedy family sold the building to Vornado Realty Trust as part of a larger transaction of about $625 million. Vornado later rebranded the building as THE MART. Today it is known for the design showrooms, a food hall, offices and technology tenants. Wikipedia lists tenants including the Chicago tech center 1871. The Mart opened its design center showrooms to the public in 2010, although some showrooms remain open only to the trade.

Since 2018 the river side of the building has been a screen. Art on theMART is a digital art display that Wikipedia says covers about 2.5 acres of the facade. It was designed to run for thirty years, and it shows works by a rotating group of artists. According to Wikipedia, it begins 15 minutes after sunset and loops for two hours.

Art on the Mart, a light projection on the building's river facade. Photo: Bex Walton. Source. CC BY 2.0. Resized.

Visiting the Mart

The Mart's address is 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, and a CTA Brown Line station is built into the building, according to the Mart's website. Parking is in the building or in adjacent lots. The public can see the lobby with its murals, the Hall of Fame busts along the river and the riverfront park. Showrooms are a mix. Some are open to the public and some to the trade only, so ask before you plan on browsing. I did not confirm current public lobby hours or the Art on theMART schedule for this fall, so check THE MART's site first. Read October 28, 2026.

Who owns the Merchandise Mart today?

Vornado Realty Trust bought the Mart in 1998 and, as far as I can tell, still owns it. Wikipedia and the legal explainer LegalClarity, in a June 2026 article, both say Vornado owns the Mart. In August 2025 Vornado's chief executive told investors that Vornado would sell the Mart and a San Francisco building for the right price. The Real Deal, Crain's Chicago Business and Bisnow reported it. LegalClarity said in June 2026 that no buyer or asking price had been publicly identified. I searched for a sale agreement or closing through October 28, 2026 and found none.

The Cook County Assessor's parcel record for 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza lists the owner and mailing name as "Merchandise Mart Owner," with a mailing address in suite 470 of the building. That is a label, not a deed, and it does not name Vornado. I could not confirm the exact company on the deed, or whether the land is held separately from the building. I found no source on either point. The Mart's own site lists leasing contacts at Stream Realty Partners, which is a leasing and management role, not an ownership role. Read October 28, 2026.

Where can you eat or drink at the Merchandise Mart?

THE MART's site describes a two-story food hall, just off the Brown Line stop on the east side, with options from quick lunches to sit-down meals. It also lists River Park, a riverfront gathering space with outdoor seating, and Marshall's Landing, a bar and lounge at the top of the Social Stair. The same page calls Marshall's Landing a space for tenants and visitors to gather, but I could not confirm whether it is open to the general public, so I would treat it as unconfirmed. The site lists a separate room, the Founder's Room, as exclusively for tenants. I did not read the food hall's tenants or hours. Check THE MART's site or call before a visit. Read October 28, 2026.