[needs update][3][4] Built by Marshall Field & Co. and later owned for over half a century by the Kennedy family, the Mart centralizes Chicago's wholesale goods business by consolidating architectural and interior design vendors and trades under a single roof.

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.

"[3] Cement arriving by boat was lifted by compressed air to bins 75 feet (20 m) above the ground, with gravel and sand delivered by railroad cars to conveyor belts and transfer elevators.

[14] In 1998 the Kennedys sold the property to Vornado Realty Trust as part of a larger $625 million ($1.2 billion in current dollars) transaction.

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 1977, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed the Chicago Apparel Center, on the west side of Orleans Street, which increased the Merchandise Mart’s total floor space to 6.2 million square feet (580,000 m2).

In 1988, Helmut Jahn designed an enclosed pedestrian walking bridge over Orleans Street connecting the Mart and the Apparel Center.

The building is open at the pedestrian level with bronzed framed display windows, typical of a department store, on the south, west and east boundaries.

Deeply recessed portals occur between raised panels, and are adorned with medallions featuring the interlocked initials of the Merchandise Mart.

Fifty-six American Indian chiefs circled the tower's crown, a reference to the site's history and Chicago's early trade activities.

[3] The lobby of The Merchandise Mart is defined by eight square marble piers, with storefronts in side aisles framed in embossed bronze trim.

The green and orange terrazzo floor was conceived as a carpet: a pattern of squares and stripes bordered by overscaled chevrons inlaid with The Mart's initials.

[3] Referred to as "business boulevards", two wide 650 feet (200 m) long corridors with terrazzo floors in the upper levels featured six and one-half miles of display windows.

[3] Jules Guerin's frieze of 17 murals is the primary feature of the lobby and graphically illustrate commerce throughout the world, including the countries of origin for items sold in the building.

Drawing on years as a stage set designer, Guerin executed the murals in red with gold leaf using techniques producing distinct image layers in successive planes.

In a panel representing Italy, Venetian glassware appears in the foreground with fishing boats moored on the Grand Canal and the facade of the Palazzo Ducale rises above the towers of the Piazza San Marco.

It provides a 2.5 acre "canvas" (2 football fields) for digital artwork projected on the Chicago River facing facade of the Merchandise Mart.

The Chicago Varnish Company Building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and now housing Harry Caray's restaurant, is located east on Kinzie Street.

During the Art Chicago 2008 the American artist Jenny Holzer illuminated the facade of the building with a poem by the Polish winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Wisława Szymborska.

In 2006, MMPI joined Clean Air Counts, a voluntary initiative to reduce smog forming pollutants and energy consumption in the Chicago area.

Part of the campaign strategies included utilizing only low VOC cleaning products, paints and building materials, as well as energy efficient lighting and alternative workplace transportation options.

[1] In 1983, the Sultan of Brunei once spent $1.6 million at the Mart to furnish his entire palace, claiming the location was the only place where the task could be completed in one week.

Unlike stores with traditional shelf and rack displays, entire usable rooms are created, providing consumers an opportunity to compare form and function between applications and manufacturers.

GoHealth occupies 93,000 square feet (8,600 m2) on the 5th floor of Merchandise Mart, the Potbelly Sandwich Works' corporate offices are located in the tower.

When opened on October 20, 1930, the nineteenth-floor location covered 65,000 square feet (6,000 m2) and supported a variety of live broadcasts including those requiring orchestras.

[45][46][47] Hugh Downs contributed to the Burr Tillstrom children's show Kukla, Fran and Ollie from the NBC studios after the network picked up the program from WBKB.

WMAQ's former sister FM station, now WKQX, stayed at the Merchandise Mart until 2016, when it moved to NBC Tower itself..[48][49] The nineteenth floor is currently vacant.

On January 7, 1949, NBC station WNBQ commercially debuted its television broadcast schedule on channel 5, with a minimum of two hours of programming per day.

Although WMAQ-TV has since moved to NBC Tower about a mile away, and for the most part the 19th floor of the Mart has been turned into office space, one former tenant (Bankers Life and Trust Company) maintained a remnant of the original studios as their video and multimedia department.

[40] Built in under four months and opened on December 5, 1930, the Merchandise Mart elevated train station served the Main Line of the North Side Division.