Dearborn Street, Chicago

The 60-story First National Bank Building was designed by Murphy, Perkins and Will and built in 1969. A mosaic of the "Four Seasons" by Marc Chagall (1974) and a fountain by Samuel Hamel are located in its attractively laid-out plaza.

The Federal Center contains the Central Post Office, a 45-story Federal Office Building and the 30-story Court House (by Mies van der Rohe, 1964). "Flamingo", a 50ft/16m high metal sculpture by Alexander Calder, sits in the plaza.The building is an example of International style. It is a relatively unadorned, square, steel-skeleton framed structure.

The Monadnock Building, designed by noted Chicago architects Burnham and Root and built in 1891, is still the tallest masonry-built office building in Chicago. The 16-story structure has six-foot thick walls at the base to support its heavy load of bricks. The building's architectural style is called Richardsonian, named for H.H. Richardson, who designed the Marshall Field & Company store on State Street. In 1893, a second set of buildings, the Katahdin and the Wachusett, was added to the original. They were designed by the architectural firm of Holabird and Roche, known for helping to develop the distinct Chicago Style.The interior of the Monadnock building was restored in the 1980s and today houses the ArchiCenter, with an exhibition gallery and a wide selection of good architectural books. The center offers guided walking tours of the Loop and neighboring districts.

This e-shaped building is a steel frame, with masonry and terra cotta, and 17-stories high. The Marquette Building was designed in 1895 by Holabird & Roche. The hexagonal lobby displays a Tiffany glass mosaic by J.A. Holzer. It illustrates missionary Jacques Marquette's explorations of the Mississippi River basin. Marquette whose journal is illustrated in the bronze plaques above the building's doors was one of the first Europeans to visit the area.

The Richard J. Daley Center is a 31-story tower containing government offices and lawcourts. In the plaza in front of the building is a 50ft/15m high piece of abstract sculpture by Picasso (1967). An eternal flame commemorates the dead of many wars.The building was designed by Jacques Brownson of CF Murphy and Associates and constructed in 1965.

This Gothic-inspired skyscraper took inspiration from the Reliance Building. The building's name over the entrance is written using fish. It was built in 1896 by D.H. Burnham & Company.

The Chicago School architectural firm of William Holabird and Martin Roche designed the Old Colony Building in 1894. The structure is characterized by rounded corner bay windows, a narrow north facade, long, vertically-emphasized east and west facades and by a unique use of Chicago windows on the second floor.

The Manhattan Building is the first ever steel-framed, high-rise building over 16 stories. William LeBaron Jenney designed it around 1890 using a combination of gothic and modern styles. The Manhattan is credited with helping to spark the trend in architecture to experiment with steel to build taller and taller buildings. Jenney was one of the creators of the Chicago School of Architecture.

This mirrored building curves around the corner of Dearborn and Monroe. It dates from 1980 by Helmut Jahn of C.F. Murphy Associates. It was built for Xerox and is known by that name.

The Inland Steel Building remains unchanged since its completion after the Depression and World War II. It consists of a rectangular nineteen-story glass-walled office tower and a square twenty-five story service tower covered in stainless steel.