FOREST HILLS CEMETERY
Boston, Massachusetts

This is our entry for "Dwelling: Memory, Architecture and Place at Forest Hills Cemetery," sponsored by the cemetery's educational trust.

We propose to build two structures that engage existing landscape elements. On the hillside, a steel portal marks entry to an existing pudding-stone staircase. At the base of the stair, a small steel viewing platform with long views of Lake Hibiscus provides a place of repose.

The pergola and existing stair guide the visitor to a protected place where he/she might pause and reflect. Set between two stone retaining walls, the platform floats above the grade, slightly removing the visitor from the earth and projecting him/her out into the landscape. A teak garden chair is provided.

Our proposal is influenced by our admiration of the many examples of ironwork and pudding stone walls in the cemetery.

We were also inspired by the Ming dynasty scroll painting "Dreaming of Immortality in a Thatched Cottage" in which the scholar, dozing in a small protected structure set among the rocks, is also seen floating in ethereal space beyond.