Vienna Beef is an institution in Chicago. In 1893, Vienna Beef found fame at the Columbian Exposition World’s Fair, when two brothers brought their Austrian-Hungarian sausage making skills to Chicago. In the 1970s, Vienna Beef opened a factory and corporate office building, which also contained a popular factory store and restaurant, at Damen and Fullerton Avenues along the North Branch of the Chicago River. Vienna Beef manufactured their products in that location until 2016 when the city split the site with the relocation of Elston Avenue, forcing Vienna Beef to move both their production and offices to another location. Wanting to return to their former building, Viena Beef retained HMPG to establish a master plan for the redevelopment of the entire site, reimagining the existing buildings. This multi-phase development includes bringing back their corporate office to the second floor, creating a new restaurant and Vienna Beef Experience (providing food, retail sales of their products, events, a landscaped outdoor plaza, and displays of Vienna Beef’s history) to the first floor, and renovating the former factory for retail and other similar uses.
