Russian Transcendent Square

The gargantuan Novy Arbat thoroughfare was finished in 1967 as part of the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, it has become lined with bright lights, giant advertising billboards and numerous casinos – a small, meretricious piece of Las Vegas in the heart of Moscow. Makarov’s building, like the three other “book” skyscrapers, has one side completely draped in a 24-story-high advertisement for the MTS mobile phone company, screaming out to passing motorists: “You’re the Best!”

Advertising is changing Russia's outdoor environment.