Kazakhstan's Republic Square: Before and After

You won't be able to distinguish between the shiny, soaring spires of Kazakhstan and those of New York City for very much longer. Soviet-style architecture is being replaced by ultra-postmodern buildings there every day. Witness this incredible before-and-after transformation, currently underway as Los Angeles architect Eric Owen Moss converts the gray, rectangular buildings of Kazakhstan's Republic Square Complex in Almaty into a hyperspace complex, its reflective towers balanced atop a swirling vortex of air and steel.

The top image is a 1996 photograph of the Republic Square Complex in Almaty by Farrokh Derakhshani. The bottom is from Moss' architectural rendering.