WSJ
2003-09-23 | 11:24 p.m.

Little exerpt from the Wall Street Journal:

Everyone's heard about the housing boom, but a tomb boom?

Many Americans over the past few years have upgraded where they live. Now, some are raising the standards of where they want to spend eternity. Cemetery owners, driven in part by baby boomers who are planning their parents' burials or preplanning their own, are plotting high-end mausoleums that contain amenities like waterfalls, interactive technology, elaborate chapels, gazebos and even caf�s. Some tout computer chips that contain photos, bios and in some cases the voice of the deceased.

Mausoleums, which date back to the time of the Pharaohs, are freestanding buildings used for the entombment of human remains. Inside, stacks of crypts containing caskets line the walls, many of them marked with the name of the deceased. Funeral-industry representatives say larger, so-called community mausoleums, as well as cremation burials, have increasingly become a popular alternative for people who don't like the idea of in-ground burials.

But while the older mausoleums tended to be somber and foreboding, the most recent ones are a lot more welcoming, decorative and high-tech. Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks and Mortuaries in Glendale, Calif., is planning a three-story community mausoleum complex in Renaissance style. It will feature a 2,700-crypt mausoleum; a statuary garden; a 800-seat auditorium for religious services, lectures and films; a caf� serving coffee and light sandwiches; a space for exhibitions by local artists; and a museum displaying a permanent exhibit of artwork owned by the cemetery. The crypt area will feature technology that lets visitors press buttons on hand-held devices to retrieve photos, history and even a recorded message from the deceased via computer chips affixed to individual crypts.

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