Graceland Cemetery

Initially tasked with a simple refurbishment, our team re-envisioned the main entrance for the cemetery, including restoring a gateway into the cemetery where one hadn’t existed since 1890. Our team found ways to reposition the space and create flexibility within a confined area that couldn’t be expanded due to adjacent burials. By consolidating two parking areas by the entry, the team established an active, engaging plaza space that emphasized the visitor experience, focusing more on public use while keeping longevity and timelessness at the forefront of the design. 

The “forecourt” or outdoor vestibule is a liminal space to collect oneself and transition from the celebration of the living to a place of memorial for the past. Using the archway as its centerpiece, the entryway signals that you are transitioning into the cemetery – a quiet place of solitude and reflection for past loved ones. In such a dense part of the city, it was important to consider the forecourt as a place inside the cemetery, separated from the gravestones, to celebrate life and host activities for the modern needs of the cemetery, which became a significant meeting place for friends and family during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The archway’s primary design challenge rested in it needing to be functionally large enough for semi-trucks to get through to deliver to the maintenance yard while also feeling reminiscent of the original 1860s design to appear like it was always a part of the cemetery. The team introduced ornamental ironwork inspired by the subtle gestures of the ironwork fence work along the public sidewalk and an important departure from a landscape filled with ornate stone memorials. The ironwork is representative of the oak trees, cattails, and sumac plants that defined Chicago’s marshy landscape before the city backed up to Graceland, which originally opened its doors about 2 miles away from any city life. The team engraved the same ‘G” found etched into the original gateway stone in the cemetery’s waiting room into the bottom of the archway to pay homage to the cemetery’s history. Other motifs used in the archway include an owl, a symbol of the connection between the living and the afterlife, and turtles supporting the arch on their shells, a common wetlands species with folklore rooted with the Indigenous people of the region. The ironwork represents the Chicago before us and the Chicago that will be here after us. 

Remaining functional while reminding visitors of where they are is the triumph of this revitalization effort. The historic presence of this cemetery will last forever. Our team knows what this entry means as a continuation of the legacy of the great architects and industrialists buried here. A place that has existed for more than 160 years already, the team created a space to take it into the next century and beyond.