There’s a 7-Story Picnic Basket Building in Newark, Ohio — Here’s How it Got There

Longaberger Basket Building, Ohio

December 1997: 500 workers showed up to their new office shaped like a giant picnic basket. The handles were heated, the wood was local, and the whole thing cost more than most small towns.

Here’s how it happened and where to find it on your next Ohio road trip.

Dave Longaberger’s Big Idea

Dave Longaberger ran a basket company that grew quickly through home sales parties like Tupperware.

In 1997, he walked into a meeting with architects carrying one of his company’s baskets. He put it on the table and said this would be the design for his new headquarters.

“If they can put a man on the moon, they can build a structure shaped like a basket,” Dave told doubtful architects and engineers.

He planned to build basket buildings in every major market where his company sold products. The Newark headquarters would be just the first of many.

The Firms That Said Yes

NBBJ and Korda Nemeth Engineering first suggested subtle basket-inspired designs. Or, use basket elements as small details rather than making a literal building replica of one.

Dave said no to all of them. After many meetings, Bohm-NBBJ finally agreed to his full vision for a building that would look exactly like a Longaberger basket.

The Basket Shape

The design challenges were significant. For one, unlike normal buildings with same-sized floors, this one needed to widen from bottom to top like a real basket.

The second floor was 20,000 square feet while the seventh floor spread to 25,000 square feet. This upside-down design needed careful planning to stay standing.

The Massive Basket Handles

Two huge handles arching over the roof became the hardest part to build. These handles weighed about 150 tons, as heavy as 25 elephants.

Workers spent eighteen months making and setting up these massive steel structures. Each handle has heating elements to stop ice from forming during winter, keeping ice from falling onto the glass roof below.

Authentic Basket Details at Massive Scale

The outside walls have stucco panels arranged in a woven pattern like real basket weave. Workers made 6-foot by 30-foot panels with crossing elements to look like woven maple strips.

Two huge gold-leaf tags hang from the sides, each weighing 725 pounds and measuring 25 feet wide. These copy the tags found on every Longaberger basket.

Windows follow the pattern of a real basket’s vertical strips, keeping the basket look while letting in light.

Using Locally Sourced Materials

The cherry wood throughout the building came mostly from the Longaberger Golf Club in Hanover, Ohio. Trees cut from company land traveled just a few miles to Longaberger’s own sawmill.

Workers dried and shaped this local wood into inside parts and decorations. The building pairs this cherry wood with a steel frame covered with stucco and wire mesh to create its basket look.

Interior Design and Functionality

Inside the basket, a 30,000-square-foot open space rises from the ground floor to the glass ceiling. This central area brings sunlight deep into the building.

Office spaces wrap around this open center on each floor, providing work areas for 500 employees. Pretty normal inside.

Visiting Longaberger Basket Building

The Longaberger Basket Building is at 1500 East Main Street in Newark, Ohio, about 40 minutes east of Columbus. As of 2025, the building remains privately owned and not open for regular public tours.

You can view the basket’s exterior from the roadside on State Route 16. Park briefly in the public lot for photos, but respect the private property signs.

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