The article reflects the prevailing practice and relationship between archaeologists, developers,city planners and officials in Finland. It aims at raising a discussion of a new kind of collaboration,which would integrate archaeology with city planning and construction activities creating a new kind of townscape and city identity.The focus of this paper is on the recent excavation project carried out in the city of Lahti in the southernpart of Finland. The project included close co-operation with archaeologists and the constructioncompany, since the construction of the site began while the excavations were still going on. The excavation project included also communication with the public and the media, which turned out to be very successful. In this paper, I am also presenting some ideas how archaeology and findings from the site could be incorporated in the construction of the site and how the history of the town could be presented in the townscape of Lahti. This project proved that besides getting and disseminating new information about the past, archaeologists can affect the opinions of the public and change the conceptions of the town and city identity. History should not be stored in museums and archives only, but be a visible part of the townscape of today. This needs wider collaboration between archaeologists, architects, city planners and town officials – the interest of the city dwellers exists already.