The Center at Maple Grove
The Center at Maple Grove
Site concept
Contemplation garden
Project Information
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.
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.
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.
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.
-
2012 AIA Westchester/Hudson Valley Citation
-
2008 Queens Chamber of Commerce Excellence in Design Award
Honors and Awards
-
New Construction
-
18,000 sf
Maple Grove Cemetery
Kew Gardens, NY
Site concept
Concept diagram
Contemplation garden
Site concept
Maple Grove Landscape
In the mid-1800s, Kew Gardens was a rural refuge with glacial ponds used for swimming in the summer and ice skating in the winter. In 1875, Maple Grove Cemetery was established in Kew Gardens and became a 65-acre pastoral preserve of rolling hills, winding paths, and planted grounds. Today, it is the area’s only open, green landscape, the link to a more tranquil past in the midst of a busy, residential community. The cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The new Center at Maple Grove is an 18,000 sf landscape building that forms the gateway to the cemetery. To create this new gateway, part of an 8-foot-high masonry wall surrounding the cemetery was demolished. The removed wall was 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. Constructing a building based on the idea of a garden wall makes the case emphatically for opening the cemetery landscape to the community and joining together these two disparate landscapes in an interconnected and cooperative manner.