Submit email feedback on this item:

Filename :

GC159.JPG

Description :

Birge Memorial Forest Lawn cemetery Buffalo, New York Twelve Doric columns stand at attention around the sarcophagus of George K. Birge. The memorial, erected in 1929 by McDonald and Sons of Buffalo, is a good example of the trend in the 1920’s and 30’s toward less surface ornamentation. Rings of columns surrounding buildings are known as peristyles. When the columns are arranged in a circle, as seen here, they are known as tholos forms. The tholos form of architecture is well adapted to situations where the designer is presenting a building of simple, dignified and ethereal beauty. George K. Birge, who will spend eternity in his gleaming white sarcophagus was a wallpaper manufacturer and President of the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company.