The lynchpin of the plan called for a new Mausoleum to expand above ground options for crypt and cremation burials, and to accommodate contemporary memorial rites and practices. It respects that in designing a final resting place for ten thousand people, individuality, human scale, and a sensory connection to the natural world are paramount.

Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum / HGA Architects and EngineersNick Potts, AIA, Michael Koch, AIA, Eric Amel, AIA, Steve Philippi, Jay Lane, Robert Johnson Miller, Ross Altheimer, ASLA3600 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55408, United States The large glass doors, sheathed in bronze grilles that repeat the looping, circular motif of the mosaic tile, usher visitors into a serene space of folded mahogany walls, abundant prisms of daylight and distant views across a newly landscaped lower garden.

To the west, a sweeping Venetian plaster wall directs mourners to a small chapel for committal ceremonies. Mitigating the committal chapel’s exposure to direct southern sun, tall window recesses are cut at deeply raked angles into the thick exterior wall – a strategy that both moderates the light entering the contemplative space and ensures a degree of privacy for grieving family members.

Lakewood Garden Mausoleum seeks to preserve the character of the historic landscape while creating dignified burial and commemoration space for as many as 10,000 people. This has the benefit of consolidating much of the high traffic and infrastructure to a discrete precinct within the grounds, leaving the vast majority of the original landscape and critical view sheds undisturbed.

How can Lakewood afford to build this new mausoleum? If you have more questions about Lakewood's new Garden Mausoleum, please contact us at

The polychrome Chapel mosaics, for example, serve as a springboard for the white marble and glass tile pattern that owes as much to Byzantium and the organic tracery of the Chicago School as it does to geometric algorithms and funerary symbolism.

A simple mass of split-faced grey granite, the entry’s chiseled clerestory windows and canted recesses hint at the building’s interior functions and complexity, while reducing the structure’s visual heft. Niches and crypts are located both indoors and outdoors (near the garden area).The new mausoleum's contemporary design is abundant with natural light and rich materials of granite, marble and wood, as well artistic details like mosaics, bronze artwork and colored glass. To reimagine how we come together to honor and memorialize life. Memorial Mausoleum Today's new Garden Mausoleum is no exception.

Its 28,000 square foot interior is decorated with Impressionist paintings, Italian marble, crystal chandeliers, mosaics, and large stained glass windows.

Why did you choose a contemporary style instead of something more historic?
Included as a significant feature of the Garden Mausoleum project, the redesign of the four-acre site strengthens the connections between Lakewood’s distinctive architecture, while offering a serene setting for both small family services and larger community events. With an existing 1967 Mausoleum nearing capacity (due largely to the increased acceptance and interest in above ground burial and cremation) the Cemetery’s Board of Trustees commissioned a comprehensive Master Plan in 2003.

A generously scaled stair draws visitors from the entry to the lower garden level. The Garden Mausoleum entrance at street level represents only a small fraction of the total building mass, and includes a reception room and lounge, a small business office, and catering facilities. Additionally, a grove of Hawthorne trees ameliorates the existing outdoor crypt walls on the east, while multiple exterior stairs improve access between the lower garden and the adjoining historic burial plots.

Lakewood encourages families to consider a place of remembrance for visiting a loved one who has been cremated. Returning to the lobby, a simple square opening cut into the rough granite wall marks the threshold between the active and communal spaces of the mausoleum, and the places of burial, remembrance, and individual contemplation. The new mausoleum has been built into a hillside, with more than half of the square footage of the building nestled into the earth.

Challenged with the task of adding a large structure – 24,500 square feet – to a much beloved place, Joan Soranno, FAIA and John Cook, FAIA of HGA Architects and Engineers quickly committed themselves to a strategy that protected and enhanced the cemetery’s historic landscape. Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum / HGA Architects and Engineers



The reception area features a veranda with views of the garden area. A full two-thirds of the building lies below, tucked quietly into a south-facing hill and overlooking the lower garden. The new Garden Mausoleum and Reception Center allows Lakewood to offer an additional 4,000 cremation niches, as well as almost 900 crypts for above-ground entombment.

The design recognizes that in contemplating death – as in living matters – people have diverse perspectives and desire uniqueness.
Already a remarkable place before the Mausoleum broke ground, Lakewood’s landscape and its small campus of buildings are enriched because it is there – framing a view, completing an edge, and embracing human scale. Its intimate feeling allows the landscape to be the shining star.The building's style is tied to Lakewood's other buildings through the use of materials including granite, marble, wood, and artistic features like mosaics, bronze artwork and colored glass.Do I have to buy anything if I set up an appointment? A large building, no matter how artful, was bound to detract from Lakewood’s pastoral beauty.

Window and skylight orientations rotate and shift between rooms, variously framing a view to near or distant horizons, up to the tree canopy, or clear blue sky. When you enter this building, you'll know that time, care and consideration were taken to build it.And the third element is a connection to Lakewood's greatest asset - the landscape.