ENThe author analyzes the failures of making urban design of new center of Vilnius that did not match the expectations: what we have is a cluster of comteting yet dull high-rise buildings in conventional Modernist environment where there is no social or public life. Developments of this kind were diagnosed and forecasted a few decades ago by insightful American urban observer Lewis Mumford. His critique remains penetrating and explains many flaws of present urban planning in Lithuania as well as post-Soviet space.