The LA Group designed the master plan and phase I development of a new 545-acre national cemetery in the Detroit region of Michigan. Responsibilities included cemetery master planning, landscape architectural design, site planning, and development of phase IA and IB expansion. The scope of services included program analysis, a master plan for the entire cemetery facility, design development, construction documentation, cost estimating, quality control, and construction phase services for the phase I development area.
The program requirements included gravesites to accommodate burials through year 2030 (casket sites, columbarium niches, and in-ground cremain sites), entrance area, flag and assembly area, public information center, 4 committal service shelters, administration and maintenance complex, roads, utilities, signage, site furnishings, fencings, walls, and landscape plantings.
In 2019, the LA Group was the cemetery planner and designer for the phase 2 expansion at the cemetery as well as a minor design-build burial expansion project. In accordance with the master plan, these 2 projects developed approximately 31 acres of the 469 undeveloped acres remaining at the cemetery to provide approximately 31,200 gravesites, including both full casket and cremation options. The phase 2 design also added a third committal service shelter, additional cortege staging lanes, and improvements to other facility and infrastructure elements necessary to support the added burial capacity for approximately 10 years.
