The Cornerstone Garden is located on the campus of St. Albans and within the historic grounds of the National Cathedral Close in Washington, DC. This garden design transformed a previously unused portion of campus into a spatially enclosed columbarium where the ashes of alumni, faculty, and staff can be interred. Nestled between the campus sanctuary and the main academic building, a steeply sloping site presents the opportunity to utilize retaining walls as memorials, where inscriptions commemorate the deceased.
Four low stone walls traverse and terrace the hillside, allowing the mass plantings of trees and shrubs to spill from the upper levels of the garden. Designed with procession and reflection in mind, visitors move from the sanctuary down a path into the garden. Walking through the garden on the crushed stone pathway, one is drawn past the memorial walls to intimate seating areas for pause and reflection, all within the backdrop of the National Cathedral.