More than 200 grave sites of late designers are alphabetically listed and illustrated in this new book, Architects’ Graves: A Serendipitous Guide by retired medical industry executive Henry H. Kuehn (MIT Press, 2017). The 152-page, nontraditional architectural guide does not focus on the inspiring or controversial structures that the architects built when they were alive, but rather on their final resting places. While he was expecting to find glorious monuments dedicated to the men and women who shaped urban landscapes around the world, Kuehn was surprised to discover modest plots of remembrance and that many architects chose to be cremated instead of buried.
Henry H. Kuehn, courtesy MIT Press
Louise Bethume's grave at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, N.Y.
Henry H. Kuehn, courtesy MIT Press
Le Corbusier's grave in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France
Each entry in the book has a photograph of the architect’s grave (or final resting place) with a short note about that designer’s career. Ranging from Louise Bethune‘s headstone—once solely marked by her husband’s name, which since 2013 features a plaque commemorating her accomplishments—to Philip Johnson‘s unmarked ashes spread over the rose garden across from his 1949 Glass House, the book documents the ways in which people who have contributed iconic structures to the world are remembered long after they are gone.
Henry H. Kuehn, courtesy MIT Press
Frank Lloyd Wright's grave in Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Henry Kuehn, courtesy MIT Press
Zaha Hadid's grave in Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey, England
Henry H. Kuehn, courtesy MIT Press
Thomas Jefferson's grave in Monticello, Va.
Henry H. Kuehn, courtesy MIT Press
Pierre L'Enfant's grave at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.