The Holy Cross Cemetery is a Catholic cemetery established in 1915 in Cleveland.  Internment choices include ground burial, cremation, and mausoleum entombment.  

An existing mausoleum built in the 1950s has the Cemetery’s namesake – the Holy Cross Mausoleum.  This building is mid-century modern, a three-aisle rectangular mass of brick construction, with an east-facing arcade of five simple arches, which culminates in a two-story tall cross. 

We proposed moving or re-directing the cross in order to make way for a massive new addition.   This would be achieved with a cross-gabled form, with a raised pyramidal mass at the center, both creating a strong appearance from a distance, and lifting the interior space volumetrically at the crossing.   The gables terminate at the north and south with pilasters, and at the primary entry to the east with a massive Doric colonnade. 

We created several orders in the composition, including a human scale order in the front arcade and to counterbalance the entry portico, and give this entry a stronger sense of monumentality and scale.   The mausoleum addition will accommodate over 500 additional body crypts and hundreds of niches for urns.  

The project we proposed has yet to be initiated, but the need for expansion may present itself in the near future at this cemetery.