Worrell Yeung and Understory Design Community Hub at Evergreens Cemetery
Worrell Yeung, a firm based in Brooklyn, is undertaking the renovation of a historic chapel while also creating a community hub at Evergreens Cemetery, a 225-acre area that spans Brooklyn and Queens and was established in 1849. Understory Landscape Architecture will improve the greenspaces originally designed by Andrew Jackson Downing. The initiative will feature a new event hall, administrative offices, archival storage, a conference room, a lobby with an art gallery, and public restrooms, all organized around a courtyard with a water element. The chapel, constructed in 1850 by Alexander Jackson Davis, will be transformed into a visitor center. Construction is set to commence this summer, with an anticipated completion date in fall 2028. The design seeks to harmonize solemnity with celebration, similar to projects at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Key facts
- Worrell Yeung is renovating a historic chapel and designing a new community hub at Evergreens Cemetery.
- Evergreens Cemetery is a 225-acre campus straddling Brooklyn and Queens, incorporated in 1849.
- Understory Landscape Architecture will enhance the cemetery's rural greenspaces originally designed by Andrew Jackson Downing.
- The new community hub will include an event hall, administrative spaces, archival storage, a conference room, a lobby with a gallery, and public restrooms.
- A chapel from 1850 designed by Alexander Jackson Davis will be restored as a visitor center.
- The new building will be clad in local Jet Mist granite shingles to match the historic chapel.
- The largest interior space is a double-height sanctuary lined in wood for various uses, topped by a wood truss roof with a continuous clerestory.
- Worrell Yeung is designing an observatory dock for the Amateur Astronomers Association.
- Construction begins this summer, with completion expected fall 2028.
Entities
Artists
- Max Worrell
- Jejon Yeung
- Andrew Jackson Downing
- Alexander Jackson Davis
Institutions
- Worrell Yeung
- Understory Landscape Architecture
- Evergreens Cemetery
- Amateur Astronomers Association
- Architecture Research Office
- Michael van Valkenburgh Associates
- Greenwood Cemetery
Locations
- Brooklyn
- Queens
- New York City
- United States