Epstein's Top 100 Projects: #84: Hillman’s Bakery

Coming in at no. 84 in our Top 100 Projects is 1961’s Hillman’s Bakery, located at 3853 W. 43^rd Street in Chicago.

This Epstein-designed and engineered 1-story, 70,000-square-foot food production facility was constructed for $1.5 million ($13.6 milliohm in 2021). It featured a candy kitchen, a nut roasting operation and a prepared foods kitchen, along with a bakery that produced cakes, doughnuts and other pastries.

This building was designed to centralize the production of Hillman’s baked goods in one plant, which, prior to this facility going online, was spread out over three Chicago locations. In addition, this plant would allow Hillman’s to improve its production and meet their client’s demands for baked goods and prepared foods. The facility also provided Hillman’s with better quality control, a more uniformed finished product as well as a freezer operation to meet the booming desire for frozen pastries.

In the early 60s, Hillman’s operated 14 supermarkets throughout Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. The stores were known for their brightly-lit and colorful interiors, a few of which were designed by Epstein, as well.