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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.
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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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