International Trade Mart, New Orleans Louisiana

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The International Trade Mart (ITM) was conceived and built to stimulate and promote international trade through the port of New Orleans. The building illuminates and reinforces the selection in 1718 of the site for New Orleans for its potential as a trading post and maritime port. Over the following centuries, international trade built New Orleans. The ITM building provided a headquarters for commercial and trade organizations, foreign consulates, maritime law firms, shipping companies, and diplomatic and trade-related meetings and functions. Begun in 1964 and completed in 1967, the ITM played a major role in the growth and commercial activity of the port. Its purpose and significance is underlined by its prestigious site in the heart of New Orleans at the center of the port and in its accessibility to the city's business and cultural districts. To highlight New Orleans as one of the nation's foremost ports for international commerce and the crossroads of trade between the nation's interior and the world, master architect Edward Durell Stone gave the building a cruciform shape with four wings pointing to the four corners of the world. The building's setting and shape illustrate and symbolize its function as well as the city's role as a center for global trade. The symbolic importance of the ITM to the port and to the city of New Orleans cannot be overestimated. The building was meant as a milestone to commemorate past growth and as a tool to stimulate future growth. Additionally, it is an impressive example of Edward Durell Stone's mature work.

Situated where the Mississippi River reaches deep water, New Orleans' strategic location made it the gateway between the nation's interior and the world. Commerce between the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe was established within a decade after the city was founded in 1718. Soon products from the nation's interior were being shipped to markets overseas through the port of New Orleans. By the mid-nineteenth century, New Orleans was the second largest port in the nation and the fourth largest in the world. Steamboats and, later, railroads, contributed to the success of the port, which served a 14,500-mile inland waterway system. Port activity slowed during the Civil War, but after it rebounded in the 1890s the amount of cargo was more than the city officials could regulate. In response, in 1896 the state legislature created a Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans to manage and maintain the flow of trade through the port. The Board of Commissioners assumed control of the public wharves in 1901, and between that year and 1950, added around seven miles of wharves, a terminal grain elevator, a public commodity warehouse, and warehouses for coffee and bananas. Exports and imports included grain, cotton, coffee, and sugar. Completion of the Public Belt Railroad in 1908 united all the railroads serving the port. To further expand the potential of the port, the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal was completed in 1923 to connect the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain and form a link in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway system.

The port flourished during World War II, notably as a supply base for armies overseas. Where the total tonnage handled by the port in 1939 was approximately 16,300,000, it had grown to 25,200,000 by 1945. There was a slight decrease in 1946, but tonnage had bounced back to almost 30,000,000 by 1947.

In 1950, the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans produced a report, A Long-Range Program for the Development of the Port of New Orleans, describing the expansion and updating of the port's docks and warehouse facilities. It was noted that the "Port holds a most strategic position in the path of maritime trade routes, connecting, as it does, the region of greatest productivity in the United States, the Mississippi Valley, with the markets of the world, particularly in Latin America and the Orient. [The port] has come now to be recognized as one of the ranking ports of the world." Moreover, it was clear that because New Orleans had no significant manufacturing base the success of the port depended on transshipment of goods rather than goods produced locally. Consequently, a trade mart was essential to the port's and New Orleans's viability and prospect for growth. As James B. Kenyon states in his analysis of American ports (Economic Geography, January 1970), "It is no accident, therefore, that New Orleans pioneered in the consolidation of port-associated business in a single office structure, the International Mart, located appropriately at the foot of Canal, the main street of the city."

The enormous expansion of port activity between 1955 and 1964 is outlined in Daniel S. Juhn's study, Growth and Changing Composition of International Trade through the Port of New Orleans, 1955-1964. He reports that in 1955, New Orleans was the largest port in the United States in dollar volume of trade, with exports overshadowing imports. He noted that "Foreign trade has always been of vital importance to Louisiana, and the economic development of the state has been closely tied to the growth of the Port of New Orleans. A review of the data concerning foreign trade through the Port of New Orleans in the ten year period 1955-1964 indicates that growth is the main theme." New Orleans' percentage growth in waterborne foreign trade in this period grew by 42.4 percent and was exceeded only by Chicago. For both ports, grain was a major export commodity. Major export tonnage for New Orleans also included chemicals and petroleum products.

When the ITM building was under construction in 1965, the increase in port activity was fourfold in terms of dollar value, according to John A. Reinecke and Vincent Maruggi (Performance of the Port of New Orleans, 1965-1978). During this period of growth items of exports through New Orleans were bulk grains, organic chemicals, tractors, and coal. Imports included petroleum, steel products, and coffee. In 1967, New Orleans ranked second in the nation after New York for the total value of exports and imports.

International House and the International Trade Mart

The idea for a trade mart in New Orleans has a long history. A trade mart was first proposed in 1910, but several attempts to establish one had met with little success. In 1943, when the port was booming as a supply base for World War II, a group of New Orleans' civic and business leaders established a non-profit organization named International House. The goal of the organization was to ensure that New Orleans retained its place as a global port. The organization rented a building where they could meet with business leaders and government officials from all over the world. As well as promoting and bolstering international commerce, the organization dedicated itself to peace, trade, and international understanding. Several of the organization's members soon had bigger commercial goals and two years later they formed a partner non-profit organization, the International Trade Mart, a center where manufacturers could display and sell both domestic and foreign goods. Chartered in November 1945 the Trade Mart's goal was to "add wealth and jobs" through international trade and port activities. It was the first such organization in the United States and the first of what today are 289 similar organizations in 85 countries. International House and the International Trade Mart were intended to complement each other.

In 1948, the Trade Mart opened in a building (since demolished) in downtown New Orleans and within months all of its space was occupied with goods and products from 32 states and 26 foreign nations. Foreign Commerce Weekly (December 13^th, 1949) commented that "the International Trade Mart forms the final link in the export-import machinery and facilities of America's second greatest port - New Orleans."

The two organizations also wanted to ensure that New Orleans serve as the nation's principal port for trade with Latin America. These goals were shared by Mayor deLesseps S. Morrison, who was elected in 1946. In his memoir, Latin American Mission: An Adventure in Hemisphere Diplomacy (1965), he records that "I determined to make the New Orleans port as busy in peacetime as it had been in wartime" and to "increase Latin American trade through the port."

Success of the Trade Mart motivated plans for a new building that would accommodate the functions of the International Trade Mart and those of International House, and symbolize the port's success. At an organizational meeting on September 11^th, 1957 in the city's Council Chamber, a committee (which included Mayor Victor Schiro) was formed to consider creating an International Center of Trade and Culture in New Orleans. The committee's preliminary proposal recommended a site at the foot of Canal Street. "The site offers an ideal location for the hub of a vast international, diplomatic and trade relationship with our neighboring countries … All of the assets that the International House and the International Trade Mart now possess would be consolidated in an edifice facing Canal Street." According to the report, the proposed site had the advantage of being "at the junction of several future main traffic arteries, a feature which will provide easy and quick access to the proposed interstate highways system, the new Mississippi River Bridge [opened in 1958], Moisant Airport [1946, and expanded in 1959] and the City Business District." Moreover, the site had "accessibility to our vast port facilities and import-export activities." The report concluded that "The International Center would create a world famous example of urban redevelopment and a focal point for world trade." A news item in The Daily Journal of Commerce (March 1958) noted that it was recommended that the ITM building be "set up in such a manner that the organization at New Orleans would become world headquarters with New Orleans facilities furnishing leadership."

By 1958, the Trade Mart had two squares under option at the site where the ITM would eventually be built. To move the project forward, architect Edward Durell Stone was invited to New Orleans to confer with members of the building committee about a design. He arrived on Monday, August 4^th, 1958. Trade Mart president William G. Zetzmann announced that "Our new project will be a symbol in stone and steel. It will mean that New Orleans has enlisted for the duration in the economic war Russia has declared upon the West." (Times Picayune, August 3^rd, 1958). This was the era of struggle for world dominance and the beginning of the Space Age marked by the Russian launch of Sputnik a year before. New Orleans, at least in the eyes of the committee, was at the forefront of the Cold War.

To signify the building's importance, the Trade Mart and International House desired a building that was distinctly modern by an internationally famous architect. That Stone was selected to design this "temple to international trade" speaks to the symbolic as well as the functional importance of the ITM building.

In August 1958, five months after his appearance on Time magazine's cover, Edward Durell Stone arrived in New Orleans by invitation of the committee. On visiting the proposed site for the ITM building, Stone declared it "spectacular" and that the building would be "a marker that could be viewed the whole length of Canal Street." (Times Picayune, Tuesday, August 5^th, 1958). The newspaper also reported that Stone "would look for a solution truly indigenous to New Orleans." Later, in his autobiography (1970), Stone described the site and the impact of the building, "This great plaza for the Trade Mart is at the foot of Canal Street and for the first time gives visitors and residents a view of the river, which had been blocked by a continuous circle of warehouses. Now New Orleans will have a true gateway to the city, directly on the river which plays such an important role in its economic life." Lloyd J. Cobb, ITM vice-president and chairman of the building committee added that "It must be a temple to international trade, unique the world over. There will be only one International Trade Mart in the world and that one will be right here." Stone was officially retained to design the ITM building on Monday, August 5^th, 1958. His first design drawn up in 1958 was a 19-story rectangular building with a circular arcaded piazza for the river side of the building and an accompanying exhibition hall (Progressive Architecture, May 1959).

The site fulfilled all the functional and symbolic needs of the ITM in its accessibility to the port and railroad and in its physical visibility. The importance of this carefully chosen site added to the building's significance. It was as iconic as the architect and one that broadcast the ITM's and International House's mission and ambitions. The ITM is a prominent part of the city's skyline and an unmistakable landmark for arriving and departing ships.

The project stalled until the entire site at the base of Canal Street, several parcels of which were owned by the city of New Orleans, the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans, and two railroads, was available and negotiated, and financing arranged with city-issued revenue bonds. This was finalized in 1963 under ITM director Clay Shaw. However, with the extraordinary growth of the port and its related activities the ITM's directors realized that Stone's original scheme of 1958 was too small for their needs. He was asked to submit a design for a much larger building, but without the separate exhibition hall. (The design for that building, known as the Rivergate, was awarded to another architecture firm, Curtis and Davis). Stone created the unusual and symbolically-shaped building with its four wings pointing to the four corners of the world. It is the most original of all the buildings later designed for international trade centers in the United States.

Even before construction began, the Times-Picayune (October 27^th, 1963) noted that two-thirds of the rentable space was already spoken for and concluded that the building would also bring to its riverside location, "A whole new look for a long-neglected end of Canal Street and possibly a revitalization of the entire area adjacent to the riverfront." The ITM building transformed a depressed area of dilapidated buildings and warehouses into a prestigious address.

Although the ITM was completed in 1967, the official dedication was delayed until April 30^th, 1968, in a joint ceremony with the adjacent and just-completed Rivergate. The Times Picayune reported that dignitaries from more than twenty countries, business and civic leaders, and delegates to the Organization of American States (who were meeting in New Orleans at the same time) participated in the dedication.

In 1985, the two organizations -- International House and the International Trade Mart -- merged to form what is now called the World Trade Center. At that time the International Trade Mart building was renamed the World Trade Center (WTC). Today, the World Trade Center is a non-profit organization of corporations and individuals dedicated to promoting international trade and the port of New Orleans. It sponsors trade missions to Latin America and the Caribbean nations, organizes trade shows, conducts educational programs and seminars, and hosts dignitaries and visitors from New Orleans' trade partner nations.

In the oil boom years of the 1970s and early 1980s, the ITM building was a vibrant place, but in the lean years following the oil bust and the construction of new office buildings in the Central Business District, the building languished and, slowly, commercial offices, law firms, and foreign consulates began to vacate the building. From the late 1990s, various plans were proposed to develop parts of the building into a hotel, but these were abandoned following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the related decline in tourists, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the economic recession of the next few years. In 2009, the few remaining tenants were asked to leave the building and today it is empty. In March 2012, the city of New Orleans closed on a purchase agreement to buy out the lease of the building.

Edward Durell Stone

Born in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 1902, Edward Durell Stone attended the University of Arkansas from 1920 to 1923, after which he moved to Boston where his brother was an architect. Stone worked as a draftsman for Henry R. Shepley while studying at the Boston Architectural Club. In 1925, Stone was awarded a scholarship to the Department of Architecture at Harvard University, but transferred to Massachusetts Institute of Technology a year later. There he studied architecture under Jacques Carlu who was, according to Stone, "beginning to experiment with modern design." (Edward Durell Stone, The Evolution of an Architect).

In 1927, Stone won a Rotch Travelling Fellowship and spent the next two years in Europe, where he made a point of visiting modern buildings. "When I went abroad I was eager to see the new architecture which was beginning all over Europe." These buildings included Mies van der Rohe's German Pavilion in Barcelona and structures by such avant-garde architects as Erich Mendelsohn and Peter Behrens in Berlin and Willem Dudok in Holland. On his return to the United States in 1929, Stone settled in New York City. He never completed his architectural degree.

Stone's return coincided with the start of the Great Depression. During the next few years he found various small commissions, including designs for theaters, furniture, advertising layouts, and lighting fixtures. Stone's fortunes changed with the commissions for the Mandel House in Mount Kisco, New York. Published in Architectural Forum in 1935, the design gave him widespread recognition. It has been described as the first International Style house on the East Coast. Stone also began to design model houses for such popular magazines as Collier's, Ladies Home Journal, House Beautiful, and Life. In 1937, he received the Gold Medal of the Architectural League for his design of a Mepkin Plantation residence for Henry and Clare Boothe Luce in South Carolina. From that point, Stone became one of the most sought-after architects in the United States by clients who wanted modernist or International Style buildings. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City of 1937 was another important commission. In this period, Stone also became known for his innovative use of modern materials and designs.

Tn 1940, Stone visited Frank Lloyd Wright's compound in Taliesin, Wisconsin, which influenced his shift away from an austere modernism to a greater expression of natural materials and response to context. Sensitivity to environmental forces became important to his style as in his design for a hotel in Panama (1946) that was oriented for maximum ventilation via cross breezes and control of heat and glare with louvers. This experience of designing for a sub-tropical climate would serve him well for several successive projects. These included a high-rise hospital in Lima, Peru (1950), a hotel in Jamaica (1952), and one of his most important commissions, the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi (1954). The embassy, a modern version of a peripteral temple, showed the profound influence of classical architecture on Stone's work from the 1950s, leading to a more embellished formalism in this phase of his career. That expression of symmetry and order was apparent in Stone's first design of 1958 for the International Trade Mart Building and more so in his revised design of 1964.

By the time Stone was invited to New Orleans in 1958 to design the ITM, Stone had achieved an international architectural reputation and a considerable body of experience in the creation of buildings that effectively resolved issues of heat and humidity. The year 1958 was a highpoint in Stone's career. He designed the U.S. Pavilion for the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels and on March 31^st, 1958, he was featured on the cover of Time magazine. The ITM's building committee had achieved a public relations coup in hiring Stone and immediate promotion for their building.

The 1960s was the decade Stone designed several of his most historically important buildings. Along with his revised design for the ITM Building, there are several in Washington, D.C., notably the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (1962), the National Geographic Society Building (1964), and the former United States Department of Transportation Building (1969), which, although it is much shorter, bore some resemblance to the ITM Building until recent alterations. Elsewhere, he designed the General Motors Building (1964) in New York City and Busch Stadium (1966, demolished) in St. Louis. The ITM building is the only structure Stone designed in New Orleans and Louisiana. Stone, who garnered a major international reputation for architectural design, is counted as one of the most significant mid-twentieth American architects. He died in New York City in 1978.

Building Description

Constructed between 1964 and 1967, the International Trade Mart is a 33-story cruciform-shaped skyscraper standing on an irregularly shaped block at the foot of Canal Street where it meets the Mississippi River in downtown New Orleans (Orleans Parish). The building is in a commercial area and straddles the line between the French Quarter and the Central Business District. It is adjacent to the Port of New Orleans, to the Public Belt Railroad tracks, and has easy access to major traffic arteries. The reinforced concrete building's exterior is sheathed in precast concrete aggregate panels and glass windows. The concrete panels have vertical fins on their edges that project slightly from the surface to hold horizontal aluminum louvers to shade the windows. The style of the building is New Formalism. Although it is vacant, the building has undergone few exterior or interior changes and retains a high degree of exterior and interior integrity.

Detailed Description

Constructed between 1964 and 1967 and formally dedicated on April 30^th, 1968, the International Trade Mart (ITM) is a thirty-three-story commercial building designed by Edward Durell Stone and prominently situated at the foot of Canal Street where the street meets the Mississippi River. The building sits on a nearly rectangular-shaped block bounded by Canal Street, Convention Center Boulevard, Poydras Street, and the river in the heart of downtown New Orleans between the French Quarter and the Central Business District, the city's commercial heart. Its location is a mere block from the historic U.S. Custom House on Canal Street that was completed in 1881. The ITM's prestigious location where a major artery meets the river gives it unmatched visibility from land and because of its position on a curve of the Mississippi it has exceptional prominence to ships approaching from both directions.

On the ITM's river side to the east is Spanish Plaza and the Public Belt Railroad that links the river's wharves. The railroad's tracks run through the riverside wing of the cruciform-shaped ITM at ground level. Initially known as Eads Plaza, Spanish Plaza was redesigned and renamed when the ITM was built. The Times Picayune (October 2^nd, 1963) reported that by agreement with architect Stone, "The government of Spain will give New Orleans' new International Trade Mart complex a 'monumental fountain' and decorate the surrounding plaza area." The land sides of the ITM are grass-covered and dotted with small trees. Originally the Canal Street side of the building was known as the Place de France and included a statue (now relocated) of Joan of Arc, which was a gift from France. These surroundings were intended to emphasize the ITM's international credentials.

The cruciform-shaped ITM building is carried on spiral piles driven up to 200 feet into the ground to find anchorage in stable clay strata. The building has a reinforced concrete structural frame and floors. In plan and elevation the ITM is composed of four identical wings extending from a central service core and the wings face the cardinal points of the compass. In its vertical organization, the building follows the late nineteenth-century tripartite formula established for high-rise structures by Louis Sullivan. It consists of a base, middle, and concluding element, or cap. For the ITM the formula is interpreted in a thoroughly modern fashion and the building's modern design and materials identify it as a New Formalist structure.

The double-height "base" follows the cruciform shape of the building although the eastern wing that faces the river is open at ground level to accommodate the tracks of the Public Belt Railroad. On the other three sides, the base's entrance lobby is enclosed by dark-tinted glass walls. A projecting flat canopy consisting of a concrete slab supported by painted steel square columns shades the base. This canopy wraps the entire building and forms a covered walkway on three wings. The canopy is edged in aluminum and serves as a balcony for the third floor. An aluminum railing edges the balcony. The canopy makes clear the distinction between the two-story "base" and the building's "middle" of 28 stories. The base's dark-colored glass walls and the shadow created by the canopy overhang distinguish the base from the lighter-colored upper floors so that from a distance the tower appears to hover above the ground. Not only does this express the ITM's technological reliance on its structural frame rather than a solid masonry base, the visual effect that the tower is free-floating is an aesthetic hallmark of New Formalist buildings. The building's entrance faces Convention Center Boulevard and consists of simple glass doors that blend with the glass walls. This understated entrance is another feature of New Formalism.

Above the base, the building has four wings in a cruciform shape. Thus, the building has a total of twelve sides, all of which are virtually identical. The wings rise twenty-eight stories to form the middle section of the building. The building's four wings are wider at the central core and taper slightly as they extend out. This middle section of the building is sheathed in a curtain wall composed of two-lite, aluminum-framed glass windows that alternate vertically with panels of precast exposed aggregate concrete panels. The panels and the windows rise up the building as vertical bands, emphasizing the structure's height, and are framed by projecting concrete panel vertical fins. The fins project slightly from the surface to hold narrow and closely spaced horizontal aluminum louvers that, from the fourth story to the thirtieth, shade the windows and screen the interior from direct sunlight in order to reduce air-conditioning costs. There are no louvers over the windows at the third story so that the balcony on the upper surface of the canopy can be accessed. The top thirtieth story is mostly glazed and without louvers so that its dark-tinted windows form a band around the tower and a horizontal counterbalance to the building's soaring verticality. This middle section of the building finishes at a flat, projecting, concrete canopy. Although the building relies on the reinforced concrete frame for its structure, it does not display externally this structural frame. Instead, the building's curtain wall surface forms the aesthetic, with the metal louvers giving texture and color.

The dark-tinted windows of the thirtieth story, below the canopy, make that story appear to recede, which conveys the impression that that the horizontal plane of the canopy and everything above it hovers over the tower's middle section. Above the canopy is a single story that is partially enclosed and has windows, and is topped by another projecting canopy, although this time its extension is shallower than the canopy below. The building then concludes with a cylindrical element. The projecting canopies (especially the lower, larger one) in combination with the cylindrical element give the impression that the building is crowned by a top hat. The thirty-first and thirty-second floors contain mechanical equipment and are clad in louvers. The upper part of the cylinder (the thirty-third floor) accommodated a cocktail lounge surrounded by a glass-enclosed platform. The platform revolved 360 degrees every 55 minutes to provide dramatic views of the city, the Mississippi River, and the busy port.

In terms of overall form and design, Stone, who was a modern classicist, asserts here a mid-twentieth-century focus on classical symmetry and order in the building's rhythm of vertical and horizontal elements. In a modern way, the ITM references the city's plethora of historic classical architecture.

The building contains 670,000 square feet of office and commercial space. The entrance lobby, which is in very good condition, has terrazzo floors, walls of white Italian marble in panels that are separated by vinyl strips, and the columns are clad in Verde Antique Italian marble. The white Italian marble on the floor is laid in large pieces of marble shaped like each of the four wings of the building. Circulation systems are in a central core of ten high-speed elevators (nine for the public and one service elevator) with bronze doors. A pair of escalators that link the lobby to the second and third floors has aluminum handrails. Tall, thin sections of marble are used at the center of the second floor level as screening.

The building's cruciform shape with its greater amount of surface area allowed natural light into the interior, and the windows on its twelve sides afforded views to the river and the port, as well as the city. Office floors reach eleven-and-a-half feet in height and have suspended acoustical ceilings and recessed lighting. Interior partition walls were of gypsum board on steel studs so that they could easily be moved to provide flexibility of interior space. The thirtieth floor, the uppermost floor of the building's middle section, housed the Plimsoll club (named for Samuel Plimsoll, who devised the Plimsoll line for indicating a ship's maximum draft), a business and social hub. Spaces for receptions and dining were accommodated on this floor and the ITM used these rooms for official hospitality functions.

West and south wings of the building (2013)

Exterior view of the lounge on the 33^rd floor, corner of west and south wings (2013)

Main entrance at first floor of west wing (2013)

View of building taken looking down Canal Street (north and west wings in view) (2013)

Northern wing of the building (with side elevations of west and east wings) (2013)

Spanish Plaza from the 3^rd floor balcony of the east wing (2013)

View from the 3^rd floor balcony of the east wing (2013)

Main lobby on the 1^st floor (2013)

One of two escalators in the 1^st floor lobby leading up to 3^rd floor (2013)

Elevator lobby on the 1^st floor (2013)

Demoed office floor (3 floor) (2013)

Finished office floor (17^th floor); the floors between 3 and 29 are a mix of finished and demoed office spaces (2013)

Elevator lobby on the 21^st floor (similar lobbies on floors 4-20 and 23-29) (2013)

Interior view of the Plimsoll Club reception room on the 30^th floor, north wing (2013)

Interior view of the Plimsoll Club dining room on the 30^th floor, east wing (2013)

Interior view of the Plimsoll Club dining room on the 30^th floor, east wing (2013)

Interior view of the revolving lounge on the 33^rd floor (2013)

Interior view of the revolving lounge on the 33^rd floor (2013)

Interior view of the revolving lounge on the 33^rd floor (2013)