The Merchandise Mart

"Original designer Alfred Shaw conveyed THE MART’s unique, modern concept with an Art Deco style and integration of elements from three building types: warehouse, department store, and office skyscraper. Chamfered corners, minimal roofline setbacks, and corner pavilions serve to camouflage the edges of the rectilinear mass, visually reducing its weight and bulk. The building opens up at the pedestrian level, where the two-story base features over-scaled display windows typical of a department store. The 25-story central tower projects and rises from the main block to reveal its affinity with the skyscraper. The lobby of THE MART, in an overall palette of buff, bronze, and warm tones, exemplifies the understated elegance that characterizes Shaw’s later designs. Eight square marble piers, so slightly fluted that they appear merely striped, define the main lobby area. The terrazzo floor was conceived of as a carpet in pale hues of green and orange, with a lively pattern of squares and stripes bordered by over-scaled chevrons inlaid with an abstraction of THE MART’s initials. The chevron motif is continued three-dimensionally in the column sconces that cast their light onto an ornamented cornice situated above. The crowning feature of the lobby is Jules Guerin’s frieze of murals, which complete the iconographic trilogy of the building. An arcade extends the length of the building to provide the shops and services “normally found on the main street of almost any town.” During the earliest years of the building, this area was home to lunch counters, a restaurant, and retail shops for everything from clothing to candy."