A Columbarium is a memorial area for those who have chosen the practice of cremation. The Cremation Association of North America predicts that by 2010 forty percent of all Americans will choose cremation as the preferred choice of burial options. This means that, in just a few short years, 1/2 of all Americans may be interested in a columbarium memorial. You might ask where a columbarium can be located. Columbaria can be placed in a number of appropriate exterior garden locations. They can also be placed in appropriate interior locations. Eickhof Columbaria has installed exterior columbaria at churches, cemeteries, retirement communities, universities, and military facilities such as the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. We have placed interior columbaria in churches, cathedrals, cemetery mausoleums, cemetery chapels, Buddhist temples, and retirement community chapels.
Eickhof Columbaria has spent 25 years, since its inception, doing only one thing, and that is developing a better way to engineer, design, and fabricate columbarium memorials. This is all we do, and this is all we have ever done. We have an attitude that fosters a company culture of constant improvement. In the late 1980’s, Eickhof Columbaria patented the first proven concealed hardware system for fastening stone niche fronts. In the early 1990’s, Eickhof Columbaria pioneered and patented the first thin wall columbarium fabrication method, utilizing 3/8” thick cement fiber building board. In the mid 1990’s, Eickhof Columbaria designed the first pre-assembled free standing circular, octagon, and hexagon shaped columbaria. The round columbarium was also awarded a design patent.
What does this mean to our customers? It means we have 25 years of product testing. We have many years of our columbarium product being exposed to all different types of climates and weather, from extremely hot weather in Florida to the extreme cold in Minnesota. This has allowed us to make product improvements based on what we have learned from direct experience. This experience, along with a company attitude which fosters a culture of constant improvement, provides our customers with the best columbarium product available. This means Eickhof clientele receive a columbarium that is more beautiful, requires less future maintenance, and operates simply during in-urnment ceremonies.
Eickhof Columbaria has been chosen for many notable columbarium projects because of the superior engineering that goes into, and is a part of, every Eickhof columbarium. One notable project is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, CA, where Eickhof Columbaria supplied 4,700 columbarium niches. Eickhof Columbaria’s superior engineering provided the concealed hardware system for fastening the Spanish limestone fronts that create the exceptional beauty in this special space. A thin wrench slips into the top center joint of each niche front. This allows simple, but not obvious, access to the niche (urn space). The concealed hardware makes possible a clean stone finish devoid of exposed hardware and battens. Adjustment and control is built into the concealed hardware, so that joints in-between niche fronts are always uniform and stay that way. The hardware provides a stone columbarium surface that is solid, flush, and free from future movement or rattle. This provides a columbarium with a crisp and clean appearance for the 200 year design life of the Cathedral. The concealed hardware also provides a measure of security, in that it is not obvious how the niche fronts are removed. Eickhof Columbaria’s simple, modular columbarium niche system, using light-weight, 3/8” thick cement fiber building board, provided many advantages for the Cathedral’s columbarium. This allowed the light-weight Eickhof columbarium niches to be moved through existing door ways into the Cathedral with out heavy lifting equipment. The Eickhof columbarium niches, with their thin wall fabrication, provided more space efficiencies. This allowed the Cathedral, with a defined interior area for the columbarium, to be able to attain an additional 20 percent more niches. This provides the Cathedral with additional columbarium niche inventory and, over time, additional revenues.
