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.

Send an email to Annalee Newitz, the author of this post, at .