theMART has been an icon in Chicago’s history since the 1930s. It was developed by Marshall Field & Co. to create a central marketplace where retailers could come to buy their wares all under one roof.
The two-block building site is bordered by Orleans, Wells and Kinzie Streets, at the junction of the North, South and Main branches of the Chicago River. It is located just east of Wolf Point, the site of many Chicago firsts – first trading post, first hotel, first church, first three taverns and the first bridges across the Chicago River. The site was previously home to the Chicago and North Western Railroad’s Wells Street Station complex. theMART would be erected on the railroad’s air rights, which provided a site big enough to accommodate “the largest building in the world”.
Original designer Alfred Shaw conveyed the unique, modern concept of theMART with an Art Deco style and integration of elements from three building types: the warehouse, the department store and the skyscraper office building.
