The building houses the Chicago Tech Startup Center. Massive in its structure, and has served as a monument up to the early 20th century, the landmark of the art deco anchors the skyline at the Chicago River junction. With its upper levels covered with colored floodlights, the building stands out opposite the dark parts of the town in the night views. The structure is the leading outlet for retailing and the whole selling of goods and services in Chicago. The Mart is vast to the extent that by the year 2008, it had its ZIP Code, which is 60654. The environs now share the ZIP Code (Zimmerman 63). In 2010, the Mart launched its Design Center Showrooms and was made available to the public. this had never been done before. Hence, many people have experienced the unique taste of architecture that was used in crafting and building of the Chicago Merchandise Mart on regular visits to the Design Showrooms.

On August 16, 1928, James Simpson, and the Chicago Plan Commission chair, along with a renowned architect, Ernest Graham, turned the initial shovels to mark the beginning of the construction (The Merchandise mart). Simpson was the president of the Marshall Field & Co., and his tenure was from 1923 to 1930 while Chairmans was between 1926 and 1935. John Griffins & Sons, the general contractor, adopted the machine era by using the techniques that were often and ordinarily used during the construction of larger dams. Cement was brought by boats and was always lifted to the bins that stood at 75 feet or 20 m above the level of the ground using compressed air (History – The Merchandise Mart). The gravel and the sand utilized in the construction of this historical monument were taken to the building site via delivery railroad vehicles and conveyor belts. The sand and gravel would then be transferred using numerous elevators that had been deployed at the construction site.

The wet concrete was provided by colossal mixers in order to skip hoists within the vertical towers which were always being extended with the rising height of the building. The construction of the Mart began by employing about 2,500 laborers to work at the site. The trend of recruiting more laborers continued to the point where there were approximately 5,700 workers. During the Great Depression that rocked the economy of the United States of America, the construction of the Chicago Merchandise Mart endured the one and a half years of economic crisis as well within that time.