By the end of 1980s archeological excavations covered more and more territory, exposure of excavated basements to environmental factors (e. g. weather) led to decay of the materials (in particular, wooden structures and bricks). To solve this problem, it was decided in 1988 to erect temporary buildings – greenhouses (also as known as "hangars" due to their brownish colour and shape of these buildings). By early 1990s three options of palace site's future were circulating in the public. First option was about covering excavated basements of the palace with soil, but it was deemed to be uneconomical option. Second option was about erecting purpose-built building on palace's site to conserve the ruins, but opponents of this option noted possible visual pollution to the Vilnius Old Town (as it was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994). Third option was about constructing building similar to the original building. Latter option received most attention from politicians and lobbied by President of Lithuania Algirdas Brazauskas. In 1993 architectural design competition was held and out of seven projects Rimas Grigas' design won the competition.