Marts

A mart, in the modern sense, is a building so big that the armies of the U. S., China, Japan, Great Britain, Italy and all the girls who have danced with the Prince of Wales could easily hide in it.

In Chicago, there is the American Furniture Mart which sprawls over two square blocks on the shore of Lake Michigan. But it will soon be equalled and surpassed, for Chicago (the "I Will" city) refuses to stop building bigger and bigger.

Marshall Field & Co. (wholesale) has announced plans for a Merchandise Mart, with space for other merchants, to be erected along the Chicago River and partly in the air rights of the Chicago & North Western Railway. The height will only be some 20 stories, but the mart will contain 4,000,000 sq. ft. (about 92 acres) of floor space. The architects are Graham, Anderson Probst & White. The name of Builder-Architect Ernest Robert Graham assures distinction--distinction dating back to the magnificent Chicago World's Fair, through the unprecedented Flatiron Building in Manhattan, to railroad stations, museums and skyscrapers in Washington, Chicago, Manhattan, Cleveland, London.

Then along came the apparel merchants and an architect named Walter W. Ahl-schlager, 41, who had created Roxy's cinema cathedral in Manhattan, apparently out of golden dough. They would show Chicago something to write postcards about--the largest and tallest building in the world--75 stories and 845 feet high . . . containing 4,650,000 sq. ft. of floor space . . . costing $45,000.000 . . . covering two blocks with its base . . . comprising a 23 story "apparel-mart" near the ground . . . above that 22 stories of office space . . . above that a 1,000 room hotel ... a garage containing space for 1,200 cars ... a railroad station under the ground . . . swimming pool, auditoriums, restaurants, shops, three clubs scattered about on various floors. . . . Thus, the Apparel Manufacturers' Mart which will be erected along the Chicago River (Wacker Drive) and almost entirely in the air rights of the Illinois Central Railroad.*

The purpose of this giant, as explained by its name, is to provide a central and all-inclusive capital for U. S. makers of clothes. Some members of the board of governors of The Apparel Mart Association are: Alfred Decker, of Alfred Decker & Cohn, wholesale clothiers; F. G. Peabody of Cluett-Peabody & Co. (collars); I. L. Marienthal, of the Modern Belt Co.; 0. Koerner, of Hansen Gloves; B. J. Shnur, of P. Becker & Co., trunk and bag makers. The head of Apparel-Manufacturers' Mart Building Corporation is Napoleon Picard, who organized the Insurance Exchange, in Chicago. Architect Ahlschlager is vice president; A. R. Clas is secretary and treasurer.

*An ingenious scribe pictured, in the Wall Street Journal, the delicious prosperity which would accrue to the Illinois Central should all its air rights on the riverfront be leased upon the same valuation, not yet announced but estimated as approximately $8,000,000 or $45 for a square foot. At this rate, all the 2,800,000 square feet on which the Illinois Central controls the air rights would produce an annual 5% rental of $6,300,000 or a revenue sufficient to pay more than $4.75 on each share of its common stock.