The Architectural Legacy of Lithuanians in the United States during the Post-World War II Era: A Monument to the Cold War

Abstract

The architectural heritage directly related to the refugees from Europe who came to the USA as a result of World War II is still an under-researched topic. New post-war arrivals from the displaced persons camps resulted in a sizeable growth of the already well-established Lithuanian community, infusing it with highly educated professionals. This also included many architects who needed to adapt and continue their practice in a different environment while also finding a way to be useful for the objectives of their national group. The aim of this paper is to examine the architectural legacy of the Lithuanian community in the post-war decades in the USA, emphasizing buildings that were designed with a specific aspiration to implement national character. Research finds that buildings built for the Lithuanian community carried a strong symbolical language that was a peculiar, yet enriching case, in regard to the then-dominant mid-century modernist trends. These structures show the determination of the national group to use their built environment as a medium to reinforce their identity and use architecture as a political statement. The paper proposes to interpret this politically motivated and stylistically distinctive architecture as monuments testifying to the political atmosphere of the Cold War. In this way, the heritage value of these buildings is linked not to avant-garde architectural styles, but to the political needs of a specific community in exile.

Keywords

• Cold War
• Lithuanians
• mid-century modern
• national style
• refugee heritage
• stateless heritage