The building has two floors and is characterised by clear functional zoning with classrooms, sports halls and administrative and auxiliary facilities on different blocks of the building (set out in as a hallway system). All three zones are set out around the central space which is formed as a “hall-type recreational zone”. The central tower had an astronomy observatory and a meteorology station. On the roof there is a viewing platform. “The classrooms are very spacious: the hall is almost 8 m high, the classrooms are 3.3 m-3.5 m and even 4 m in height”. Such solution shows an advanced intention to provide as much sunlight and fresh air to students as possible. As a noteworthy characteristic of the quite modern interior functional zoning, we should point out the large hall-type lobby. Ceilings of both the lobby and the sports halls were constructed using reinforced concrete, assisted with by one of the most prominent construction engineers at the time Anatolijus Rozenbliumas.

The building was designed by Telšiai District engineer at that time Steponas Stulginskis. The architect had recently graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in Prague and quite consistently used modernist principles in his architectural decisions. Having designed many educational buildings, the architect “preferred precisely laying out school’s territory: sports fields, common gardens, squares, playgrounds. The facades of schools designed by him had international-style shapes, whereas students were able to enjoy convenient functional zoning of the premises”. We should also note the fact that in the second half of the thirties, with the country slowly coming out of the economic crisis, gymnasiums would often become important architectural landmarks of cities and were characterised by unique aesthetics. Telšiai gymnasium should be distinguished as the most outstanding example of modernist architecture in terms of both educational buildings and common Lithuanian architectural trends.

Vaidas Petrulis