"PLEASURE" EXHIBITION BY VYTAUTAS TREČIOKAS

Paintings exhibition "Pleasure" by Alytus interwar architectural personality - engineer Vytautas Trečiokas.

In 2018 a pleasant and valuable gift from the distant Canada reached the Alytus Museum of Local Lore - a collection of 54 paintings and monotypes by the architect Vytautas Trečiokas (1912–2002), which was transferred to the museum by the author's son Raimundas.

V. Trečiokas, the former chief engineer of the city of Alytus in the interwal period, left a clear mark on the construction and restoration of the city of Alytus in the 20th century, second half of the 1930s. In his spare time he loved to make furniture, draw and paint.

The incoming engineer was born in Biržai, graduated from Biržai Gymnasium and later on studied in Paris. In August 1933, he was employed by the Alytus County Board as a draftsman and later as a technician. In 1935 he graduated from the Technical Faculty of Kaunas Vytautas Magnus University and obtained the qualification of an architectural engineer. At the age of just 23, V. Trečiokas was designated as the engineer of Alytus city. The young specialist also supervised the Alytus City Construction Commission, which was a big challenge, because at that time the city of Alytus was intensively expanding, executing major constructions.

In 1936, based on the projects of V. Trečiokas there was built a wooden six-set primary school in Prieglaudos St. (now Savanorių St.), and prepared the projects for the City Stadium and its covered stands. Also, based on his designs, in 1937 a fountain and summer stage were built in the city garden‘s centre. In December 1937, another large construction was almost completed - a modern two-storey brick primary school designed by the young city engineer on Birutės Street near the city stadium. In 1940, the first half of the year, some street renovation projects were still being prepared, but after the forced annexation of Lithuania to the Soviet Union, many of the planned works in Alytus were stopped, and construction plans remained unimplemented.

In the summer of 1944 Alytus city engineer V. Trečiokas with his wife Natalija and son Raimundas left the house on Šarūno Street he designed himself and emigrated to Germany. In 1948 the family set off by a ship to Canada. V. Trečiokas worked as an architect in Quebec and later as a draftsman at the Ministry of Public Works in Ottawa. According to his project, in Quebec‘s Hull neighbourhood there was built the St. Raimondas Church. Vytautas Trečiokas died on October 13, 2002. Both him and his wife Natalia were buried in the St. John's Lithuanian Cemetery, Ontario.