Imagine Being Thrilled Living in Basket

By Titilayo Kupoliyi

The Big Basket building, in Newark, Ohio, was built as the headquarters of the Longaberger Company, an American manufacturer of handcrafted maple wood baskets and other lifestyle products

The Longaberger basket building was birthed by Dave Longaberger

 “I figured if Walt Disney could build an empire around a mouse, the Longaberger home office building could resemble a basket,” Longaberger writes in his memoir. “Whenever I talked about it, people looked at me like I was nuts.”

The 180,000-square-foot, seven-story basket has a 30,000-square-foot atrium topped with a glass ceiling.

The basket’s 150-ton handles, which took eighteen months to construct, contain a special heating element to keep ice from forming, and potentially crashing through the roof, in the winter.

Two 725-pound, 25-feet-wide, gold-leaf tags are attached to each long side of the building.

The interior, which is in remarkably good condition, is more conventional than you’d expect from its whimsical exterior.

Although the dimensions vary from floor to floor (it’s wider at the top, like a basket would be), the effect is gradual enough that you almost forget that you’re inside an enormous basket until you look up through the atrium and catch a glimpse of those handles.

There are other subtle nods to the company’s star product sprinkled throughout the building, including a basket-weave wall treatment in Longaberger’s executive suite, undulating cabinets, and “woven” brass plaque informational signage.

Due to the basket weave stucco design, the building could only have a maximum of 84 windows.

“The architects suggested we put a giant basket ‘shell’ around a traditional building,” Longaberger writes. “Each time they mentioned a compromise, I’d point to the basket, and say, this is what I want!”.

The cherry woodwork and trim was harvested from a nearby Longaberger-owned golf course.

In addition to private offices, open-concept work spaces, and conference rooms, the building includes a 141-seat auditorium, 25 underground parking spaces, a fitness centre, medical facilities, a cafeteria, several kitchens, and multiple elevators.

The floral wallpaper, boxy television sets, and outdated computer equipment make it seem as if it was actually abandoned shortly after its construction in the late ‘90s. In fact, there are few hints that it was ever occupied at all let alone for nearly 20 years.

“It wasn’t only the architects who warned against building it,” Longaberger writes. “Everyone opposed it, including local residents, bankers, and even employees. They were certain that I had gone off the deep end.”

Dave Longaberger didn’t finish high school until he was 21.

Although, he described himself as “the least likely to succeed,” he opened a grocery store and restaurant in Dresden, Ohio and sold baskets made by his father. “In 1973, basket making didn’t seem like such a bright idea for a start-up company,” Longaberger writes. “Handmade baskets were relics.”

Even before he convinced architects to build his oversized basket, Longaberger was used to being called crazy. He was also the first to admit that his management style was unorthodox.

A whimsical headquarters had been a dream of Longaberger’s for a long time, but in his mind, that was just the beginning. He also envisioned his sales consultants out on the road in basket-shaped vans, a high-rise hotel in the shape of a hamper-style basket, and a Rockette-style dance troupe called The Basketeers.

“Believe me, I made plenty of mistakes,” Longaberger writes. “I did things my way, which a lot of folks thought was unconventional. But it was my own style, what you could call ‘thinking outside the box.’”

Around the same time that his grandiose dream was becoming a reality, Longaberger was diagnosed with cancer.

He got to spend less than two years in his seventh-floor executive suite. When he died in 1999, 8,000 people attended his two-day memorial service.

Longaberger’s two daughters, Tami and Rachel, immediately took the reins and for a while the company continued to thrive. But without its charismatic founder coupled with an economic downturn and changing home decor tastes the company eventually floundered. On May 4, 2018, the Longaberger Company ceased operations; the brand was revived in 2019 when its intellectual property was purchased by Xcel Brands.

“Thousands who dearly love what Longaberger stands for have reached out to us in hopes that we can reclaim Longaberger,” Tami said in a statement. “Our shared values integrity, craftsmanship, and opportunity for all will move us forward.”

Before he died, Longaberger expressed optimism for the future of his company, and had no regrets about how he had lived his life. “Sure, I’d like to live longer,” he writes. “But when I think about what we’ve accomplished, I look at it and say, I’m so thankful to be able to say I’ve made a difference in other people’s lives and leave a little behind.”

atlasobscura.com

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