The Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is not alone in having to deal with a lack of land, symptomatic of development in American cities and suburbs. Yet this condition is balanced by the growing trend of cremation and other above-ground burials, which has pointed the way for Lakewood to build a second mausoleum. Designed by HGA Architects and Engineers, the mausoleum sensitively merges itself into the cemetery’s landscape, reducing its impact on the surroundings but also creating a spiritual place, inside and out. Design principal Joan M. Soranno answered some questions about the project.

“The design and research process took its cue from Lakewood itself, a lawn-plan cemetery inspired, in part, from by Père-Lachaise in Paris.We studied the background of Lakewood Cemetery and funerary architecture through numerous resources, from published books and documents to on-site tours of historic cemeteries around the country. We focused specifically on the relationship between architecture and landscape to gain a stronger understanding of how the new Mausoleum would fit within Lakewood’s historic context and landscape.”