Riverside National Cemetery

VDLA served as the prime consultant, overseeing project team coordination and the development of preliminary drawings, design development working drawings, specification sections, landscape and irrigation design, and cost estimates for the columbarium. The project features 10,000 columbarium units along Van Buren Boulevard, with a five-niche-high columbarium that also functions as a security enclosure for the existing site.

The site design integrates connecting walkways and semi-enclosed arrival courts with seating areas for visitors to pause and reflect. Key site challenges included mitigating seasonal wind exposure in an inland desert climate, buffering the site from an adjacent highway, preserving existing gravesites, integrating with the existing gray-water irrigation system, and maintaining setbacks from an environmentally protected area. Additionally, VDLA developed computer simulations to visualize the proposed desert landscape treatment along Van Buren Boulevard.