Worlds largest basket by longaberger
The World’s Largest Picnic Basket Faces an Uncertain Future
The fast decline of a kitschy landmark
For almost 20 years, Newark, Ohio, has been home to one of the world’s most curious landmarks: the World’s Largest Picnic Basket. Standing seven stories tall and more than 200 feet wide, the basket was built to be the headquarters of the basket-making Longaberger Company. But while the basket-shaped building may be a unique space to house a business, since the company has left it for a new office, the odd landmark’s future is now uncertain.
Dave Longaberger founded his eponymous company in 1973, and it soon became synonymous with its trademark handwoven maple baskets. At one time, the company was the largest producer of handmade baskets in the United States. However, by the '90s the company's original building had become decrepit, and Longaberger wanted something different to replace it, the Associated Press (AP) reported at the time. So, he commissioned a team of architects and builders to make him a giant Longaberger basket.
"It looks like a picnic basket in the middle of a field," Dave Dahnke, a senior manager with NBBJ, the architecture firm behind the building’s design, to
World's Largest Basket Building: world record in Newark, Ohio
Newark, Ohio, United States--TheBig Basketbuilding, in Newark, Ohio, was built as the headquarters of theLongaberger Company, an American manufacturer of handcrafted maple wood baskets and other lifestyle products; the basket is a replica -- 160 times larger -- of Longaberger's Medium Market Basket; it's 192 feet long and 126 feet wide at the bottom, spreading to 208 feet long and 142 feet wide at the roof line, thus setting the world record for being theWorld's Largest Basket Building(World's Largest Basket Shaped Building), according to the WORLD RECORD ACADEMY.
"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. It is one of the most famous examples of mimetic or novelty architecture, in which buildings are designed to mimic or represent objects associated with their function," theDesigning Buildingssays.
"In the case of the Big Basket building, it was designed to replicate the company's best selling product, the Medium Market Basket, but 160 times larger.
World’s Largest Basket
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World's Largest Woven Basket
Dresden Ohio
Arriving in Dresden, you get the distinct feeling that you don't want to be there at the height of tourist season if you're not 'into' the whole Longaberger Basket culture. The town is geared towards those who collect, decorate, carry, sell, live and breathe Baskets. Luckily, it wasn't tourist season. But, there were still basket people everywhere.
The World's Largest Basket is an amazing piece of work, and is truely a basket. Woven just like one of the normal-size baskets, it's the real deal. When asked, a basket shop proprieter said it's re-woven periodically, as the slats really are wood. It's set in a picturesque park, symmetrically framed for photo opps.
While I was partaking in the photographic delight of capturing another World's Largest Thing, a woman in a bathrobe walked by. It was before 11AM, but not warm, and we weren't in a residential area. I looked at my traveling companion, who had noticed the same thing, and we came to the same conclusion - there must be a spa nearby.
Then, we saw another one. And another. And another and another and another. We were surrounded by middle-aged basket collectors in t