A “quick and cheap” renovation of a historic building in Kaunas has done immense damage, heritage conservationists warn, fining the contractor. The 1932 Pienocentras House is among the most valuable edifices in Kaunas and part of its UNESCO-listed modernist centre. The five-storey office building on the intersection of Laisvės Avenue and Daukanto Street was built by the Central Union of Dairy Processing Companies (Pienocentras), has since housed schools and is now under private ownership.
The owner is currently renovating the building, but heritage protection bodies say they are not following the procedures and are doing irreparable damage to the architectural icon. The renovation works have been stopped over gross violations. Jolita Kančienė, an architectural historian, says that the original granite stucco covering the building’s façade was particularly luxurious, with grains of white marble embedded in it and pressed into the cement.
This façade has now been covered with regular spray plaster. “The sprayed plaster has a completely different composition, a completely different shade and a completely different look,” comments Kančienė. Vidmantas Bezaras, director of the Department of Cultural Heritage, explains the gross violations in simple terms: a couple of nets have been glued on the walls and covered with a synthetic material with pebbles, which is “smothering” the building.
“This is domestic hooliganism against a world heritage site, somew.