Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Lakewood, a 150-year-old Minneapolis icon, draws on its rich architectural and landscape heritage for the new Welcome Center and entry gardens. As an industry pioneer, it introduces a net-zero energy building—a first for cemeteries—serving as the campus’s welcoming hub for gatherings, education, planning, and administration.
Lakewood Cemetery Welcome Center by Snow Kreilich Architects, in collaboration with Miller Dunwiddie Architects, received an 2025 American Architecture Honourable Mention from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
Historically evolving since founding, the main entry now offers an accessible public face, enhancing pedestrian and vehicular flow for a seamless experience. Amid the historic lawn cemetery, the design fuses building and landscape, balancing tradition with innovation.
Built from durable materials for generational endurance, the timeless pavilion features a continuous canopy creating liminal space between structure and site. Its colonnade reimagines the neoclassical former administration building as inviting and accessible.
Entry gardens amplify arrival, linking serene pastoral grounds to urban neighborhoods via native plantings, water features, and paths. Positioned for cardinal views, the compact footprint ensures efficiency and exterior connection, ringed by bio-diverse, drought-resistant gardens with walking paths and stormwater retention.
Innovative programming redefines the modern cemetery, emphasizing welcome through landscape ties. Replacing an old office-reception building, it provides gathering spaces, orientation, offices, and family areas—where families plan, visitors learn via workshops in legacy writing, art therapy, meditation, and multicultural offerings.
The public first floor’s pinwheel layout, defined by a warm wood ribbon, offers multi-directional views. A community room and gallery connect via sliding glass; lobby faces entry garden, gallery a tamarack grove, family wing a healing garden.
Second-floor offices core support spaces, perimeter glazing maximizes daylight despite 30% window-to-wall ratio. Open stairs and displacement ventilation boost wellness.
Targeting Zero Energy Certification, it eliminates fossil fuels and on-site combustion, self-generating energy via passive-active strategies. Two-year monitoring affirms cold-climate viability, upholding Lakewood’s stewardship legacy.
Lead Architect: Snow Kreilich Architects
Design Team: Matthew Kreilich, Karen Lu, Aksel Coruh, Dan Vercruysse, Brett Gustafson, Paul Yaggie, Patricia Mutebi, and Justin Wang
Associate Architect: Miller Dunwiddie Architects
Design Team: Denita Lemmon, Phillip Koski, Paul Schroedl, Martina Foss, Kathryn Hunsley and Rachael Springman
General Contractor: JE Dunn Construction
