John Ronan Architects

This project proposes converting Chicago’s Old Post Office building, which has fallen to disuse, into an urban burial site for the people of Chicago, and in turn anticipates that a new burial ritual involving the adjacent Chicago River which becomes unique to the city. The project proposes a river landing where funeral barges can disembark, leading to large corten steel doors which open to reveal a Remembrance Hall with funeral chapels.

Light and air enter the crypt levels above through the open metal façade alluding to the hive-like workspaces of the surrounding Loop district. The new façade reorients the building to the river; corten steel cladding at the roadway tunnel that punctures the building creates a memento mori for visitors entering and leaving the Loop.