Historic Oakland
Atlanta, GA
108×28′
Historic Oakland Cemetery is a special place. It’s one of the most beautiful green spaces in Atlanta, unique in its focused reverence and celebration of life, but, being nearly as old as the city itself, and having survived much of the destruction that Atlanta’s past has suffered, Oakland also uniquely serves as both a living and a dead history.
When I started brainstorming ideas for their new visitor center, something that I kept returning to was birth and rebirth. It’s an obvious theme, but I wanted to explore how birth and rebirth is experienced. Minutes, days, years, and decades each have their own renewing instances. Nights turn into days and days turn into nights. Seasons lead ever into each other. Life consumes death and death consumes life in a continuous exchange. In relating that to Oakland, it made sense to represent that with the life cycle of an oak, where a seed grows into a barren tree, on a spectrum that undulates and loops upon itself.
The projects that resonate with me the most, if you make a Venn diagram of its parts, have certain overlapping qualities. Oakland (which I already adored for its earnestly cultivated and unparalleled public green space) hits just about every circle:
- an honorable mission, to preserve and celebrate humanness and nature
- a nonprofit foundation
- passionate (and immensely marvelous) people who work as stewards of the mission
- a positive presence in Atlanta’s community and history
- an inherent existentialism, which appeals to my creative explorations
- personal investment, as Oakland is one my favorite places in the city
- personal growth, as this space challenged me in ways that required presence and active problem-solving
