Project Description:
In 2014 LEES+Associates developed a master plan to guide the development of a proposed municipal cemetery for the City of Salmon Arm, BC. The process included consultation with the public and key stakeholders, analysis of interment trends, local demographics and development of the concept master plan.
The subject lands at the base of Mt Ida are heavily forested, and have the capacity to serve the community as a cemetery for 80 years or more. The conceptual site plan included built-in flexibility for phased development and incorporated traditional and new forms of interment and memorialization.
Design development of the first phase of the cemetery of took place in 2015. Construction began in 2016 with selective tree clearing to create the burial ‘pods’ within the forest.
Construction was completed in 2016. Shuswap Memorial Cemetery is anticipated to receive the first burials in spring 2019.
Video courtesy of Sunset Memorial & Stone
Client/Location:
City of Salmon Arm / Salmon Arm, BC (2016)Project Innovations:
- Basalt columns for the main entry sign, and to demarcate internal processional routes
- An outdoor celebration room with an innovative new memorial wall, and scattering gardens
- Asphalt cemetery driveways, gravel pathways, and amenity trail loops linked into the wider trails network of Salmon Arm
- The main circular traditional in-ground burial area with flat and upright markers
- Power and water for the irrigation system, and to serve a future celebration hall building
- Mass tree planting to strengthen the burial ‘rooms’ within the forest;
- Cremation gardens with columbaria and family vessels
- A children’s garden.
Project Sub-consultants:
- WSP Canada
- Ion Irrigation Management Inc.