As people move, they take their architectural traditions with them. Petrulis and colleagues “examine[d] 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.”
Vaidas Petrulis, Brigita Tranaviciute, and Paulius Laurinaitis. “The Architectural Legacy of Lithuanians in the United States During the Post-World War II Era: A Monument to the Cold War.” Buildings, vol. 13, no. 12, 3138, https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13123138