Skyrose Chapel and Mausoleum

USA / California / Avocado Heights /
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The 10.6 acre chapel site has been transformed into a picturesque landscape of gardens, groves and colorful terraces with the planting of approximately 90 trees that include oak, jacaranda, sycamore and pepper.

The chapel's surrounding churchyard features a reception garden and exclusive burial property which will include the use of the upright monuments. A variety of memorialization options is available throughout the area; some sections will be reserved for exclusive family interment sites. SkyRose is the largest chapel Fay Jones and Maurice Jennings have designed to date.


The chapel is constructed of fir, Oregon redwood , bouquet canyon stone and glass and combines the beauty of Jones' unique inverse Gothic architecture with spectacular scenic views to create a site for funerals and other of life's celebrations that are remembered and shared. Three levels make up the chapel - the mausoleum (11,200 square feet) is on the lower level, with approximately 942 crypts and 556 niches, the sanctuary (11,500 square feet) is on the ground floor with 332 fixed seats and the availability to add seats as needed and the triforium on the upper level (3,790 square feet). The roof's steep approximately 45-degree pitch and the building's height, 90 feet at its peak, made construction difficult and dangerous. Another difficult challenge was installing the chapel's skylight along the roof's ridge, which measures 24 feet wide by 105 feet long. One of the finishing touches to the chapel was the integration of a Quimby pipe organ which was custom built for SkyRose. The organ consists of 3,937 pipes ranging in height from four inches to thirty-two feet.

Fay Jones, who has had more that 200 projects to his credit designed only six chapels prior to SkyRose. His first chapel Thorncrown, was built in 1980 in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and was selected in 1991 from among all the buildings built in the country since 1980 as the best by the American Institute of Architects.
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Coordinates:   34°0'38"N   118°1'18"W
This article was last modified 13 years ago