Historic buildings face Grant Park and Lake Michigan in the Historic Michigan Boulevard District.

At the time the old photo was taken, the 19-story Montgomery Ward and Company building (1899) -- with the pyramidal tower -- was the tallest in the city. The old photo shows historic buildings by Louis Sullivan (the 3 Gage Buildings at far left, 1900) and Henry Ives Cobb (the Chicago Athletic Association, with awnings on an upper floor, 1893).

The new photo shows, left to right: the Gage Buildings, the Chicago Athletic Association, the 38-story art deco Willoughby Tower (1929), the Ward building (its tower was removed in 1947 and the building was converted to condos in 2001), and, at far right, the diamond-shaped, 41-story Smurfit-Stone Building (1984).