Great Island Memorial Garden

This project involved both selecting the site and creating the design of a commemorative and contemplative landscape. The memorial garden was to have a relationship to the existing chapel, a small, shingled structure that sits within an oak and pine forest. Goals of this work that evolved with the families were: (1) a place for the interment of ashes, and a method for memorializing other family members not actually interred in this location, (2) the provision of a quiet and secluded spot for contemplation, and (3) the contemplative garden and the site for the burial of ashes were to be separate spaces. This work uses elemental geometries and materials to abstract and highlight ideas and experiences of the primordial. An archetypal experience of forest and clearing is palpable. Project published in Land Forum #13, p. 97.

The first part of the Garden that a visitor reaches is the rectangular Contemplative Garden (70’ x 20’) connected to the road and the side door of the chapel.  (Most people walk to the chapel and Garden.)  The site was selected for its beauty, including its open quality within the dense forest, and its relationship with the chapel and approach from the road.  A large existing oak tree is the focus of these two pine needle paths.  The garden is a beautiful, simple plane of stone dust.  A rectangle of moss, a five foot square granite basin, a sculptural bench/wall, and another existing tree complete the space.  The Contemplative Garden contains a presentation of plants (the moss garden and the existing trees) and water, abstracting and highlighting “life” and “time”.  The basin collects rainwater, or it may be filled by a visitor, creating a new ritual.

The Commemorative Site (20’ x 20’) is the second, separate part of the Garden.  An understated path arcs through the woods to this site.  This commemorative space is characterized by stone - the permanent material of memorial that virtually every culture has used throughout time. Visitors walk the stone dust to read the names that are inscribed in the granite.  The fields of granite pavers are of a scale such that one’s hand is able to reach into the center.  One could lay a flower on any name without stepping on any of the names. The names literally encircle a visitor; the act of walking a circumambulatory path is common to many sacred sites. A central square contains beach stones.  This central area is several inches lower than the stone dust.  It symbolizes mystery, the inaccessible, and powers greater than us. 

The beach stones in the Memorial Garden serve as a “linking object” between the living and their memories of the deceased; the beach is a vivid presence in this community. Many memories are from times at the water. On the day of a burial, everyone is encouraged to bring a stone to the site in remembrance.