Uses Merchandise Mart

1 uses

1.1 commerce
1.2 trade fairs
1.3 mass media

1.3.1 radio
1.3.2 television

uses
commerce

a display inside merchandise mart

wholesale showrooms occupy 50% of usable floor space, , sultan of brunei once spent $1.6 million @ mart furnish entire palace, claiming location place task completed in 1 week. select showrooms open wholesalers, others accessible general public. unlike stores traditional shelf , rack displays, entire usable rooms created, providing consumers opportunity compare form , function between applications , manufacturers. portion of stores offer items purchase singly or collection, while others offer design services, preservation, renovation, or installation. in addition being resource architects , decorators, mart has featured award-winning designs selected american institute of architects. catering suppliers, on-site firms specialize in providing professional services market research projects.

in 1931, marshall field , company lost 5 million dollars, followed 8 million in 1932. wholesale division reduced , field s reduced space in mart 4 floors 1 , half. mart continued display latest trends in home furnishings within showrooms , trade shows. company recovered late in decade, did not return occupied space.

in 1942, l. l. skaggs formed partnership 3 other men , named partnership owners service company, hence osco. headquarters moved waterloo, iowa, merchandise mart.

a retail shopping area, named shops @ mart, opened in 1991 , includes apparel shops, beauty services, bookstores , newsstands, financial services, telecommunication services, travel services, specialty food , wine stores, photo services, dry cleaner, shoe shine stand, , food court. u.s. post office located on first floor , fedex location on second floor.

the apparel center houses 521-room holiday inn chicago mart plaza river north hotel, offices of chicago sun-times , chicago campus of illinois institute of art – chicago, chicago office of ogilvy & mather advertising agency. gohealth occupies 93,000 square feet (8,600 m) on 5th floor of merchandise mart, potbelly sandwich works corporate offices located in tower. motorola mobility moved headquarters merchandise mart in 2014.

trade fairs

since 1969, merchandise mart has been home annual national exposition of contract furnishings, known neocon. on 1,000 exhibitors of contract , commercial furnishings, , 50,000 attendees, largest trade show of kind in north america.

since 2006 merchandise mart has played host art chicago international art fair.

mass media
radio

before location opened, nbc announced plans build studios in mart. when opened on october 20, 1930, nineteenth floor location covered 65,000 square feet (6,000 m) , supported variety of live broadcasts including requiring orchestras. wenr , wmaq broadcast location. expanded in 1935, office space in unoccupied tower, additional 11,500 square feet (1,070 m) provided room organ chamber, 2 echo rooms, , total of 11 studios. staff of more 300 produced 1,700 programs each month, including amos n andy.

hugh downs contributed burr tillstrom children s show kukla, fran , ollie nbc studios after network picked program wbkb. captain midnight radio program broadcast mart 1942 until 1945.

wmaq , wmaq-tv moved nbc tower in 1990 (even though radio station had been sold westinghouse broadcasting 2 years earlier). (today, former nbc space being utilized tribeca flashpoint media arts academy learning site film + broadcast productions.) wmaq s former sister fm station, wkqx, stayed @ merchandise mart; renamed wiqi, of may 2012 still occupies space on west side of second floor, along co-owned wlup. of 2014 wkqx has returned former merchandise mart location, station expected move new facility @ nbc tower summer 2016.

television

on january 7, 1949, nbc station wnbq commercially debuted television broadcast schedule on channel 5, minimum of 2 hours of programming per day. april 15, 1956, remembered c-day @ wmaq-tv, , described broadcasting-telecasting magazine daring breakthrough black-and-white curtain. mayor richard j. daley looking on, nbc president david sarnoff operated controls channel 5 became world s first all-color tv station wide, wide world broadcast 110 nbc-tv affiliated stations across country. color conversion project cost more $1,250,000 advertising costing $175,000. on c-day , 3 skywriting planes flew on city, trailing streams of red, green , blue smoke.

wmaq-tv first installed color equipment in late 1953, rose bowl parade of 1954 first major broadcast. introduced in march 1955, first local color program john ott s how garden grow? , featuring use of time-lapse color film.

although wmaq-tv has since moved nbc tower mile away, , part 19th floor of mart has been turned office space, 1 former tenant (bankers life , trust company) maintained remnant of original studios video , multimedia department. former wmaq space being redeveloped flashpoint academy full modern soundstage facility screening room, backlot, , classroom space on 19th , 20th floors.

local regional sports network comcast sportsnet chicago has control room, , broadcasts live studio programming apparel center expansion; studios had been home previous rsns fsn chicago , sportschannel chicago.