Renewing Economic Vitality
Dedicated in 1838, Mount Hope Cemetery is America’s first municipal Victorian cemetery. Set in a picturesque landscape, with an arboretum shading thousands of marble, bronze and granite monuments, it’s a priceless museum of art and culture. But, like many historic cemeteries, Mount Hope needed to find a way to provide plots for new burials while respecting the treasured design of its existing landscape.
The LA Group is the lead consultant assisting the City of Rochester with the redevelopment of two decommissioned roads within Mount Hope. The design solutions considered numerous constraints that included steep slopes, proximity of adjacent burials, as well as the preservation of the historic landscape (a key requirement for a cemetery that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places).
The LA Group assisted the City in:
- The evaluation of burial and other options, cost considerations and cemetery priorities
- Developing Conceptual plans for future development of in-ground casket and cremation sites as well as a scattering garden and public ossuary in the Third Avenue area
- Transforming the decommissioned Glen Avenue site, a prior vehicular route, into a planted glen and pedestrian pathway
- Addressing future maintenance concerns by paying careful attention to steep slopes, erosion control, and plant selection
- Taking the Glen Avenue project to completion by providing construction documentation, bid phase assistance and construction administration services
