Glenwood Cemetery
Houston, Texas
Located near downtown Houston, Texas, Glenwood Cemetery was established in 1871 as the state’s first picturesque cemetery. Its location along the meandering Buffalo Bayou, which cuts through the heart of the city, gives it a varied and heavily wooded topography which is starkly different from the urban area that immediately surrounds it. This memorial site is set amongst the the nineteenth-century portion of the cemetery’s development, flanked on all sides by weathered granite monuments. With this design, we sought to give an impression of calm permanence, achieved through the simple solidity and massing of the chosen, delicately sculpted granite slabs that comprise the whole of the monument.
“Taking on a project in such a sober environment, our goal was to create a moment for peaceful contemplation amongst a rather chaotic field of monuments. We designed the two granite hemicycles to be hewn from the fewest number of the largest pieces of stone available, to give it a real sense of gravity and bearing on the earth.”
in collaboration with:
Landscape Architect
Curtis & Windham Architects
Photography
Paul Hester