FULTON MARKET — Inspired by Fulton Market's meatpacking legacy, a local meat processor teamed up with a Pilsen artist to create a new mural at their Chicago plant on Lake Street.
Bridgford Foods contracted with Pilsen-based Ava Grey Designs to design and paint a new mural that faces the "L" tracks at Lake and Green. Featuring meat packers in white coats and a scene from old school butcher's counter, the mural recounts Bridgford's history in the West Loop neighborhood.
Richard Bridgford, great-grandson of Bridgford's founder Hugh H. Bridgford, said the business wanted to transform the building's tan brick facade while finding a creative way to advertise.
"We've always talked about what the best option for signage was there and we thought a mural was a really cost-effective solution that added a unique touch," said Bridgford, whose father Baron Sr. is president of the company's Chicago division. "We wanted to pay homage to our community, our employees and company founder."
Bridgford Foods hired Pilsen artist Cesar Perez, also known as CZR PRZ, of Ava Grey Designs to paint the new mural on Lake Street in the West Loop. [DNAinfo/Stephanie Lulay]
The Bridgford family interviewed many Chicago-based artists before signing Pilsen street artist Caesar Perez, known by the moniker Czr Prz, who owns Ava Grey, a Chicago-based design and fabrication company, with Little Village craftsman Nick Glazebrook.
"We gave them different pictures from the past and they really just nailed it," Bridgford said.
The mural includes Bridgford meatpackers in white coats and the Fulton Market Cold Storage building, now known as 1K Fulton development and future home to tech giant Google.
Founded in February 1932 in San Diego, Calif., Bridgford began as a retail meat market and evolved into the meat processing, wholesaling and frozen food manufacturing businesses. The company acquired an existing meat processing facility at Lake and Green streets in 1975. Today, the company manufactures beef jerky, salami, summer sausage and pepperoni at the site.
The mural, 80 feet long and 20 feet high, highlights the neighborhood's blue collar beginnings, Perez said. As part of the project, Ava Grey Designs also completed a second mural for Bridgford on a building on Green Street in the West Loop.
Historical photos served as inspiration for the new Bridgford mural on Lake Street in the West Loop. [DNAinfo/Stephanie Lulay]
Featuring workers in white coats, the Bridgford mural aims to preserve the changing neighborhood's meatpacking history. [DNAinfo/Stephanie Lulay]
While other meatpackers are moving out of the rapidly changing West Loop and turning big profits on their buildings, Bridgford plans to continue to operate in the neighborhood.
"We don't have any plans on moving," Bridgford said. "We are rooted here and as long as we can continue to operate efficiently, we don't foresee anything making us want to leave here."
Bridgford, today headquartered in Anaheim, Calif., also operates factories in Dallas and Statesville, N.C.
Pilsen artist Caesar Perez, known as CZR PRZ, also completed a second mural for Bridgford Foods on Green Street in the West Loop. [Bridgford Foods]
Perez isn't the only artist to capture Fulton Market's meatpacking history. In September 2014, artist Debra Herichs debuted 'On Fulton Market,' paintings that depict the history of the changing Fulton Market neighborhood.
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