Harvard Hill at Mount Auburn Cemetery, for Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, with Ned Friedman and Michalis Pirokka; Watertown, MA

A two phase renovation of the historic burial ground of Harvard Hill at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Nestled below Washington Tower, the lot is the burial place of many notable Harvard College alumni.

The first phase of work required significant earthwork, slope stabilization and path improvement work to make the lot once again walk-able for visitors. The second phase of work involved extensive naturalistic planting including a new columnar sugar maple canopy, gro-low sumac, aster, witch-alder, mountain laurel, rhododendron, and Solomon's seal.

A series of 3d scans were conducted across various seasons to measure the evolution of the lot over time. The drawing below is a contour plan generated from point clouds developed from images during UAV documentation.

Photos by author. Aerial point clouds created with Michalis Pirokka.