Built as an exuberant Art Deco sausage factory in 1931, the Richter's Food Products Building in West Loop is an illuminating stand-in for the last 90 years of the neighborhood.

The old Exchange Building at Chicago’s Union Stockyards and the Exchange Station on the Stockyards Branch of the L. Once the brains (the Exchange) and the veins (the L) of the world’s brawniest slaughterhouse district, it's now a random intersection in an industrial park.

Basically a traditional Chicago union hall with a Chinese-inspired skin based on photos from a German architect's book and designed by Norwegian-American architects, Chinatown’s landmark On Leong Merchants Association Building is a quirky western reinterpretation of Chinese architectural forms.