The Longaberger Basket Building is Open to Visitors

We bet no other building can represent a company so perfectly. Longaberger is a manufacturer of handcrafted wood baskets. Just like its production, the company built a huge Longaberger Basket Building. Yes, as you can see from the images, it is a basket-shaped building. The reason why the company built the basket building is simple: it is their best-selling product. But the building is 160 times larger than the original basket.

Atlas Obscura

Structural Details of the Basket Building

The Longaberger Basket Building is 180,000 square feet and cost the company some $30 million. Although the company built the basket building in 1997, it is still popular. The building has 7-storeys with a glass ceiling and a central atrium. Glass ceilings provide natural light. The building is just like a real basket in that it has two steel handles. Each of these handles weighs 75 tons!

Atlas Obscura

The inside of the Longaberger Basket Building is as unique as its façade. The designers decorated the interior with metal and glass structures. And they added a dome-shaped glass ceiling, which allows natural light to come in. The metal handles we mentioned above are not there only for decorative purposes. The handles can be heated up. So, these handles can protect the building from frost on cold days.

Designing Buildings

But this perfect Longaberger Basket Building cannot be used as an office due to the company’s falling profits. The parent company JRJR Networks moved the employees out from the headquarters of Newark. If you would like to take a trip to the building, it is open to visitors. Moreover, the company plans to convert the basket building into a residence, hotel, academic building, or senior housing. They have not revealed their actual plans. So here is the thing we ask you to do: when you go to the basket-shaped building, share your comments with us!

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