Northern Lights and South Haven Cemeteries Expansion

The City of Edmonton retained a design team managed by our Landscape Architecture team, to provide a Master Plan for a new cemetery to meet the City’s expanding burial needs. One of the priorities in the plan was to develop new areas in the Northern Lights and South Haven cemeteries. Our involvement included concept design, facility planning, master planning, and site development, as well as detail design of specific elements within cemeteries such as entry gates, sanctuaries, columbaria, memorials, information kiosks and mapping and location systems.

After the concept plan report completion in 2018, Al-Terra has continued to assist the City of Edmonton in full preliminary designs for the two cemeteries and detailed drawings to construct the selected priority items in the first phase of the expansion.

Severe drainage issues at South Haven cemeteries from snow melt and summer rainfall events have posted several grading design challenges which required intensive collaboration and communication between disciplines and between the project team and the City. Cost control has been identified as an important part of these projects. Particular attention has been paid not only to upfront capital costs but also to full life cycle costs including performance and durability of specified materials. Specific focus was placed on sourcing materials locally, reducing transport costs and optimizing the budget. Plant materials were sourced locally, as there are multiple nurseries and sod farms in close proximity.

The final design was developed from the public feedback received, evaluation of existing geotechnical and servicing constraints, and alignment with existing City of Edmonton plans and policies. The Northern Lights project features functional art pieces integrated into the design with the help of the Edmonton Arts Council. These have become prominent features due to the close collaboration between the team and the artist, ensuring both aesthetic and functional appeal. This project also includes Edmonton’s first green burial project.