Better Place Forests Mendocino Wins an AIA SF Merit Award for Architecture

Better Place Forests Mendocino has been awarded a Merit Award for Architecture by the American Institute of Architects San Francisco chapter as part of their annual awards program. This project, a collaboration between OpenScope Studio and Fletcher Studio Landscape Architecture and Urban Design was completed in 2019 and was the first memorial forest opened by Better Place Forests. Better Place Forests offers final resting places via a private tree in a beautiful, protected memorial forest.

The pavilion sits on the crest of a wooded rise, framing a view towards the meadow below, and marking the threshold of the visitors’ journey into the forest’s memorial groves. The standing seam Corten shell protects the redwood decks, fins, and paneling.

The jury was stunned by such a lovely, light-on-the-land structure. A quiet and absolutely perfect architectural solution that provides an elegantly modest entry to a sacred natural landscape.

Read more about the project here.