The Basket Building (Ohio, USA)! Longaberger Headquaters!

If you like unusual things and want to admire unusual buildings then you must go to Ohio, USA. It does not sound that interesting, but it is, believe me. Here you can admire the world’ s largest basket- shaped building. It is actually an office building and it houses the headquarters of Longaberger Basket Company. I guess that explains the unusual shape.

The Longaberger Basket Company Building in Newark, Ohio could be just a strangeoffice building in the world. The 180,000-square-foot building, a replica of the famouscompany's market basket cost $ 30 million and took two years to complete. Manyexperts tried to persuade Dave Longaberger expects to change his plans, but hewanted an exact replica of the real thing.

The guy who founded this company, Dave Longaberger, was a visionary and realized the huge opportunity to make picnic baskets and shopping baskets. And his ideas brought him fortune. So, as a thank to the apparently innocent and unimportant item, he decided to move his company headquarters into this unusually shaped building.

Longaberger baskets are produced by the Longaberger company in Newark, Ohio. The family owned business originated in Dresden, Ohio and was started by J.W. Longaberger in the early 1900's. In 1919, J.W. Longaberger was doing and apprenticeship with the Dresden Basket Factory when it was forced to close during The Great Depression. His love of basket making continued as he honed his craft by working to make baskets on weekends. Longaberger and his wife eventually raised enough capitol to purchase the former Dresden Basket Factory.

J.W. and his wife originally named the new basket business The Ohio Ware Basket Company. The original company did well but did not start to prosper until the early 1970's. This is around the same time that J.W. Longaberger passed away at the age of 71. Dave Longaberger took over where his father left off and originally marketed the handmade basket business that his father began as J.W.'s Handwoven Baskets. In 1978 Dave found success by selling theLongaberger line of baskets through home shows. The home consultants were coached on the Longaberger family history as well as the fine craftsmanship of the handmade baskets.