While the traditional image of a cemetery conjures a grassy lawn occupied by rows and rows of gray headstones, vertical cemeteries allow for more deceased to occupy a single site, and for more architectural creativity. The worlds tallest cemetery just so happens to be in Brazil: The Memorial Necrpole Ecumnica tops out at 32 stories and houses 14,000 (deceased) people, including Pel. Other vertical cemeteries can be found in Mexico City, Paris, New Orleans, Egypt, and Mumbai. The towering typology is a good fit for cities with lots of inhabitants and scant space. At Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles brought to fruition its first foray into the building style, hoping to offer dignity and grace for those no longer with us, albeit with a space-saving approach.Gower Mausoleum is perched above the heart of Hollywood near Santa Monica Boulevard. It was designed by Lehrer Architects and Arquitectura y Diseo, both local offices. It will host the remains of 50,000 people, adding 22,500 new crypt spaces to Hollywood Forever Cemetery and 30,000 niches for ashes.Coffins can be stacked eight times, with each floor soaring 20 feet high. (Tim Griffiths)Plans for Gower Mausoleum were first released by Lehrer Architects in 2019, as reported by AN. The new building tops out at 100 feet and is made of concrete. It has open breezeways and a stepped-garden street front. It sits on axis with the iconic Hollywood sign which is fitting, given that so many of the people resting at Hollywood Forever Cemetery worked in show business. The architects ideated a system where a total eight coffins can be stacked atop one another, inside floors with 20-foot ceiling heights. Each of the crypts, designers shared, are formed with 3-inch vertical and horizontal slabs of concrete that create a honeycomb structure.The facade design drew from a variety of references, all the way from pop art to ancient buildings. (Tim Griffiths)Many of Gower Mausoleums landscape features were designed by Studio MLA, for instance its calming water walls and a curated selection of lush, evergreen trees, shrubs, and grasses. The design team said they drew from a wide range of references, including Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Andy Warhol, and Eduardo Chillida, but also ancient ziggurats and mastabas from Mexico and Persianot unlike Itala Fulvia Villas Sexto Panteon in Argentina.This project is about HOME, Michael B. Lehrer, founding principal of Lehrer Architects, shared in a statement. It is a place of memory and prophecy.The building is made up of breezeways stacked atop one another. (Tim Griffiths)Sharing a city block with Paramount Studios and watched over by the mountaintop Hollywood Sign just north, Hollywood Forever Cemetery is a profoundly Hollywood place that is at once ephemeral and enduring, Lehrer continued. This fully exterior place of literal and figurative gravitaschronically drenched with fresh, sublime Pacific breezes and endless, expansive viewsachieves a verdant lightness of being by being doused in a reverie daylight and its deep shadows. It is the full process of life, death and renewal rising proud in the center of Hollywood. The breezeways have free flowing air and light thanks to the porous facade. (Tim Griffiths)Roberto Sheinberg, founding principal of Arquitectura y Diseo added: Our experience with dense urban projects, combined with a deep understanding of housing principles and the importance of open, park-like spaces, shaped our process and approach from the very beginning by creating a rhythm of dense concrete towers for interments, thoughtfully balanced with open, expansive spaces that celebrate both life and our city.