The gargantuan structure sits just beyond several neighborhoods of quaint brownstone rowhouses characteristic of this New York City borough.

The tumult of Kiev's postwar history is evident in its architecture: The bombast of Stalin's elephantine classicism was abruptly superseded by swaths of grimly utilitarian housing after Khrushchev's turn against “unnecessary excess.” 

For five uneasy years, the building team responsible for delivering the San Francisco 49ers' $1 billion new home had hung together through three work hiatuses, a recession, and a regrouping caused by a site relocation 45 miles to the south—from San Francisco's Candlestick Point to Silicon Valley's Santa Clara.

In a country fueled by a love for sports, it seems strange that only 23 years ago there were no soccer-specific stadiums in the U.S.