The architecture of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is a rich palate of forms and details, jumbled together in a miniaturized city of tombs, tombscapes and open spaces.

Tombscapes & Open Spaces

The tombscape is defined as a combination of related views, spatial configurations, material juxtapositions, and cultural associations among a group of tombs and their associated spaces and is one of the defining features of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. The tombscape is in many ways akin to the historic district, pulling from a variety of sources to create a context that is both self-defined and often part of a greater context, in this case, a cultural landscape.

One of the most distinctive spatial features of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is the interplay between the dense configuration of tombs and the open spaces that are shaped by the absence of tombs. The density of tombs in this cemetery is such that these open spaces take on qualities - in volume and character, directly related to the scale and qualities of the tombs that surround them. The spaces are energized by the physical processes of accretion and removal of surrounding tombs and often have a distinct pattern creating a local or neighborhood organization specific to their placement in the cemetery.