Print

Orange County Veterans Memorial Cemetery

Goshen, New YorkOCVMC-Master-Plan

Quick Facts

  • Client: Orange County Veterans Memorial Cemetery - Orange County, New York
  • Project Size: 19 Acres
  • Services Performed: Master Planning
  • View-PDF

 

Project Description

Opened on June 3rd, 2000, Orange County Veterans Memorial Cemetery is a distinguished final resting place for qualified veterans who have served our country with gallantry and courage, as well as their direct family members. The cemetery, having grown organically based on an initial layout prepared during the early stages of development, sought to develop a Master Plan for the cemetery to assess future growth and burial space available, as well as to add burial options, services, and to improve functionality. Mekus Tanager worked with a team of consultants to analyze the current cemetery, understand the goals and needs of OCVMC and local veterans, and then to design and develop the Master Plan for Orange County Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

The Master Plan includes: 1) improvements to the cemetery entrance and fencing to increase visibility, while adding a secondary entrance for visitors to the County’s Veterans Affairs offices. 2) Utilizing and expanding upon the existing roadway layout, while designing future roads to improve vehicular circulation, allowing maximum graveside access from the roads, while also minimizing the amount of paving to maximize the amount of burials possible. 3) Increase in the amount of burial options available, which upon implementation of the Master Plan will include traditional full body burial, cremain in-ground burial, columbaria inurnment in an expanded columbarium plaza, as well as the Walk of Heroes area, which incorporates a 5-service memorial, gold star family memorial, scattering garden, and cremain in-ground burials throughout a forested, naturalistic environment with walking paths. 4) Addition of two committal shelters to allow the cemetery to conduct multiple committal services simultaneously. 5) Cemetery information and signage area, which will have cemetery rules and information posted, as well as a kiosk which will allow users to access burial records for those interred. 6) A relocated maintenance facility which will be right-sized for cemetery operations, and will also allow the County to store Veterans Affairs service vehicles in a secure location. 7) Landscaping and material recommendations which accent the site and grounds and lend to the permanent and contemplative nature befitting a veterans’ cemetery. 8) Cemetery lighting recommendations to provide illumination for feature areas, anywhere the US flag is displayed overnight, and the cemetery entrances.

Together the improvements laid out in the Master Plan, as well as the continued dedication and hard work of cemetery staff and local veterans, will help ensure that Orange County Veterans Memorial Cemetery will be able to serve local veterans and their families well into the future.

Related Projects