Vitautas Chekanauskas
LithuaniaBiography of Vytautas Čekanauskas
Vytautas Čekanauskas, also known as Vytautas Algirdo Čekanauskas, was a Lithuanian architect. He was born on May 13, 1930, in Šiauliai, Lithuania. Čekanauskas studied at the Julius Janonis Gymnasium in Šiauliai from 1942 to 1949. He then pursued architecture at the Art Institute of the Lithuanian SSR in Vilnius from 1949 to 1955.
From 1955 to 1992, Čekanauskas worked as an architect, group leader, and chief architect of projects at the Institute of Urban Construction Design. In 1974, he became a professor at the Department of Architecture at the Art Institute (now the Academy of Arts) in Vilnius. He was a member of the Senate of the Academy of Arts.
Čekanauskas was a member of the Union of Architects of Lithuania and an academician of the International Academy of Architecture. He was honored with the title of People's Architect of the USSR in 1975 and received the Lenin Prize and State Prizes of Lithuania. He was also awarded the Order of the Grand Duke Gediminas.
Some of Čekanauskas' notable works include the Residential Quarter of the Union of Composers of Lithuania (1966, Vilnius), the Building of the Union of Composers of Lithuania (1966, Vilnius), the Palace of Art Exhibitions (1967, Vilnius), which is now the Center for Contemporary Art, the Lazdynai Residential District (1974, Vilnius), the Institute of Agricultural Economics (1978, Vilnius), the Government Building of Lithuania (formerly the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist Party; 1982, Vilnius), the Adam Mickiewicz Monument and Square (1983, Vilnius), the Administrative-Commercial Complex (1999, Žverinas, Vilnius), the Reconstruction of the Railway Station (1998-1999, Vilnius), and the Church of St. John Bosco (1993-2003, Vilnius).
