Maple Grove is a non-sectarian cemetery established in 1875, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  The 65-acre cemetery sits within an urban landscape in Queens, NY.

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The Center at Maple Grove is a new 18,000 sf building that stands at the gateway to the park-like landscape of the cemetery.  To create this new gateway, part of an 8-foot-high masonry wall which surrounds the cemetery was demolished.  The wall that was removed has been reconstructed metaphorically as the major organizing element within the building. It serves as a demarcation line between the secular landscape of Kew Gardens and the sacred landscape of the cemetery.

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The Center is a landscape building. It consists of a glass pavilion, a stone wall, an open lobby, and a small street building; the street façade mimics the scale and rhythms of the neighboring houses.  The sacred spaces — the family room and the celebration room — have expansive views to the cemetery landscape.  

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The idea of the Center at Maple Grove is derived from the urban landscape of the city, the bucolic landscape of the cemetery, and the wall that previously divided these two distinct settings.   It serves the community as a refuge for the spirit, a setting for celebration and education, and a place for internment and remembrance.