Influence of Design: St Mary Mausoleum Complex

Mekus Tanager, Inc. is pleased to present St. Mary's Mausoleum Complex in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally St. Mary's Church and Academy Building, the original buildings were built to support the surrounding Catholic community with a church and school building.

Over the years the neighborhood demographics changed, and the church and school were no longer in use. The Catholic Cemeteries Association of the Diocese of Pittsburgh took ownership of the property with the intent of re-purposing the buildings and property to accommodate burials for the community.

 

Mekus Tanager assisted the Catholic Cemeteries Association with a concept study to determine the feasibility of converting the buildings and grounds to accommodate burial inventory.  The concept study involved:

• Preserving the Church and Academy buildings’ exteriors, as both are registered National Landmarks, while re-purposing their interiors.
• Converting the interiors of the buildings to allow for a variety of burial options, and also creating a committal chapel within the church building.
• Creating terraced gardens and additional burial options in the adjacent grounds.
• Developing the design in a manner which allows for project phasing. 

 

Overall, the proposed concept study increased burial inventory by 4,174 interments, while allowing for a variety of burial options including: family estates, traditional burial plots, in-ground cremains, columbarium units and columbarium walls, single, tandem, and couch crypts, and single and companion niches.