A meaningful project is not possible without Šimašius’s new wife: this is what the municipality tried to silence

The municipality omitted the name of GT Gylytė

Delphi According to sources, the Vilnius City Municipality has already started preparing for the reconstruction of the Central European Square and the renovation of the first floor of the municipality.

City leaders have repeatedly mentioned this in the public sphere. However, they have never mentioned that R. Šimašius’s new wife, Gilma Teodora Gylytė, and her architecture firm DO Architects are contributing to the changes.

About planned city center changes for Vilnius City Municipality Delphi Questions requested. We wanted to know which architects and which architecture studio was preparing or is still preparing a project for the reconstruction of the Plaza de Europa. Has a call for bids been issued? How much did the municipality pay for the project? We asked the same about the reconstruction of the first floor of the municipality.

However, the representative of the municipality Paulius Vaitekėnas avoided direct answers. In answering the questions, he did not mention specific architecture firms or architects working on the project.
“The reconstruction of Europa Square, including the reconstruction of the first floor of the Vilnius city municipality, was discussed, but this is all just a discussion. The projects have not started yet and if they do, information will be provided. As the project has not started, no public procurement has been carried out. ” Delphi P. Vaitekėnas answered the questions in this way.

However, we again asked the representative of the municipality to answer the questions in more detail and in a more specific way.

“Have the architects of the UAB or the individual architects of this company been involved in any way in the discussions you mentioned? Have the municipality or its affiliates signed an agreement with this company regarding said reconstruction?” – we asked additional questions to the municipality.

And then P. Vaitekėnas already admitted that the municipality could not do without the help of GT Gylytė’s wife. It also specified more specifically what changes the city is planning.

“DO Architects, together with other teams -” Martynas Marozas architecture and planning “,” Vilnius Lighting “,” Living City Initiative “- is preparing a street standard, that is, street design rules. To test how they work , the model is theoretically tested in different The street standard contains the term “master meter”, that is, when the street / sidewalk part is crossed along the building, entrances are installed, the most diverse function is possible , etc.

In the preparation of Avda. Konstitucijos. and the Lviv street test, the company reported what a “master meter”, tickets, etc. would theoretically look like.
It should be noted that the project is in the initiative / consultation stage, no financing is provided for this project and no public procurement is made, ”said P. Vaitekėnas.

Be that as it may, we had a few more questions for the municipality. We wanted to know which specific employee of the municipality invited DO Arquitectos to adhere to the street design standards? Has public information been published that someone can contribute? According to who were the selected legal entities?, And the architect GT Gylytė is involved in this stage. ?

However, the municipality representative P. Vaitekėnas gave a very laconic answer and did not mention GT Gylytė at all.

“There was a tender for these services (street standard). We have already provided you with information on all contracts in previous responses, ”said P. Vaitekėnas in the response sent.

That the invitation to participate in the municipality’s project was received, Delphi it was also confirmed by Sabina Daugėlienė, director of DO Architects. “We received an invitation to participate in the contest from the municipality of Vilnius city”, Delphi she reported. However, it is not clear which employee made the offer.

Who work together?

According to data from the Records Center, the shareholders of UAB DO Architects are S. Daugėlienė, GT Gylytė, Andrė Baldišiūtė, Algimantas Neniškis and UAB Value Capital. The owner and manager of the latter company is David Tumas.

According to the municipality, in addition to UAB DO Architects, the street standard is being prepared by the small association Martynas Marozas Architecture and Planning, Vilnius Lighting and the Living City Initiative.

According to data from the Registry Center, the director and founder of the company Martynas Marozas architektūra ir plannavimas is M. Marozas. He is also a director and shareholder of UAB Vietos analitika.

According to CVPP data, the architecture and planning of Martynas Marozas have won not a few acquisitions from the Vilnius City Municipality and its subordinate institutions.

On May 4, 2021, the municipality signed a contract with this company for EUR 6,655.00 and thus acquired “Vilnius City Street Design and Geometric Detail Preparation Services”.

The municipality signed another contract with this company on 08 February 2021 for 11,374.00 euros. Purchased “Vilnius City Street Design and Geometric Detail Preparation Services”.

In 2020, this company signed four public procurement agreements with the Vilnius city municipality subsidiaries. The first was signed with the UAB Vilniaus vystymo kompanija on June 17, 2020 for 12,099.99 euros.

In September of the same year, Vilnius Development Company signed another contract with Martynas Marozas Architecture and Planning for EUR 3,872.00. In October, both companies signed another contract, the value of which also amounts to 3,872.00 euros.

In October, the municipal company “Communications Services” signed a contract with Martynas Marozas Arquitectura y Urbanismo for 8,712.00 euros and acquired “Traffic diagram preparation services for quiet traffic streets”.

Another company contributing to the development of the street standard is UAB Vilniaus pavvietimas. Its shareholder is the Municipality of Vilnius City.

The last organization that contributed to the development of the street standard, according to the municipality, is the Living City Initiative. Data for this organization could not be found in the Registration Center. However, this group is registered under this name. It contains the following presentation: “We are a group of professionals who have felt the need to contribute to the development of the network of urban green spaces in Lithuania and we have come together for the Living City initiative. Our goal is to generate a positive change in public spaces ”.

The municipality invited you to join

To find out what specific work DO Architects is doing on the project, we contacted its manager, S. Daugėlienė.

“DO Architects, together with three other teams of architects, landscape specialists and lighting designers, is preparing a Vilnius city standard: guidelines for access to streets, sidewalks and buildings. These guidelines include the term “master meter,” which describes the entrances to a building, the closest meter that separates the building, and the sidewalk or public street.

In developing the standard, we are working with other teams to develop concept schematics for several selected streets to test how the guidelines being prepared would actually work. Konstitucijos Avenue is one of those streets. During the preparation of the access sketch, the function of the ground floor was also examined, the sketch of the aforementioned “master metro”, possible accesses, very important for the vitality of the street as a public space. These consultations were provided within the scope of the standard street development agreement, ”said S. Daugėlienė.

He also claimed that he had not signed any contracts with the municipality and had not received any financing from the company.
The municipality, although asked, did not mention whether GT Gylytė, the wife of the mayor of Vilnius R. Šimašius, contributed to this project. However, S. Daugėlienė, director of DO Architects, indicated that this architect contributed.

“During the entire period, eight architects and the four partners in the office, including GT Gylytė, worked on the preparation of the Vilnius city standard. We received an invitation to participate in the contest from the Vilnius city municipality. Four parts are being prepared for the standard, we have received an invitation to participate in a contest for two of them, we have won one: the materiality of the streets and the details of the small architecture, ”said S. Daugėlienė.

Win municipal purchases

Delphi You already wrote that R. Šimašius’s wife, GT Gylytė, is also involved in more business. GT Gylytė is an architect-project manager at UAB DO Architects Consulting, director and one of the founders of the small company Gilma & Co.

The Records Center documents show that the sole shareholder of UAB DO Architects Consulting is UAB DO Architects, one of whose shareholders is GT Gylytė.

We also write that UAB DO Architects is participating well in the public tenders of the municipality and its subordinate institutions. In addition, the company successfully participates in creative architectural competitions. Its commission is often made up of municipal employees as well.

With this in mind, we asked S. Daugėlienė, the director of this company, how the company will guarantee the principles of transparency and dispel the doubts that the success of the tenders in the tenders could be determined by the relationship of GT Gylytė with the mayor of the city R. Šimaši.

S. Daugėlienė stated that to avoid misunderstandings, the company will not participate in public tenders of the municipality and its subsidiaries for some time.

“We have decided not to participate in the acquisitions of the Vilnius city municipality and related companies for the next two years so as not to cause the visibility of public and private interests.

I also emphasize that our main customers are companies, from which we receive almost all orders. These clients choose us for our ideas, proposed solutions and experience, and we intend to continue working with them.

The creative architecture competitions mentioned by private companies that you mention are anonymous, and the commission always includes representatives from very different fields and competencies, so I believe that if we decide to participate in one of them we will avoid public and private conflicts of interest. ”Said S. Daugėlienė.

We also asked GT Gylytė, one of the shareholders of UAB DO Architects, but she did not respond to questions.