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- Two Michigan brothers want to build a modern pyramid
so large that it will become a national monument with room for more than
300,000 human remains.
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- The idea may sound bizarre, but rising cremation rates
nationwide have sparked a host of business ventures far more exotic. In
recent years, companies have turned human ashes into coral reefs, fired
them into outer space -- and even sealed ashes inside desk lamps and jewelry
for families to take home and display.
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- Dan and Douglas Dudek want to return to a classic design.
Pyramids first were built 4,700 years ago as burial crypts by the Egyptians
and later were built in Central and South America as well.
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- By Egyptian standards, the Dudeks' design would be modest:
Each of the new pyramid's four sides would be 200 feet wide at the base
and the structure would rise to the height of a 24-story building. Like
the Egyptians, the Dudeks want their pyramid to last a long, long time.
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- "This construction with the kind of high-impact
polymers we have today should last for millions of years," said Dan
Dudek of Yale, 51, a construction manager.
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- Baby Boomers, heading into their 50s and contemplating
the deaths of parents and grandparents, are ready for this concept, the
Dudeks say.
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- "We're Baby Boomers," said Douglas Dudek, 48,
of Eastpointe, a quality manager for United Parcel Service. "We're
a generation that has blazed trails all our lives. In talking about this
idea, I feel a little of that 1960s flavor I remember from my youth. Once
again, we're trying to blaze a trail in another part of life."
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- Or, in this case, beyond death.
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- The brothers recently received a U.S. patent on their
design for 18-by-18-by-21-inch plastic blocks that will be tougher than
steel and hold cremated remains as well as some personal memorabilia. Most
important, the patent includes the Dudeks' design for grid-like ridges
and grooves on the blocks so that they snap together, like Legos -- so
tightly that the pyramid is supposed to defy centuries of vandals who could
one day try to break in.
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- "The Egyptian pyramids all had access routes and
nearly all of them were vandalized," said Dan Dudek. "But once
we put our pyramid together, these will be nonretrievable remains. People
won't be able to vandalize this unless they take the whole thing apart,
starting at the top brick by brick."
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- The Dudeks formed Pyra Development, based in Yale in
northern St. Clair County, and are raising money for the project.
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- The first site likely will be in a southwestern state.
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- "We want a place that's geologically stable so that
our pyramid will last 5,000 years like the Egyptian pyramids," said
Dan Dudek. "In keeping with the design, it could be a desert location
and I can see it having mountains in the background. We'd like a site in
excess of 1,000 acres."
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- The brothers decline to say how much money is needed
to start the project, but Dan Dudek said that they already have nearly
half of their funding. Eighteen months of planning and design would lead
to a groundbreaking in early 2002, he said.
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- "It's unlikely that anything will stop us,"
he said. "This is not like other building projects, where a company
has to raise millions to build a very expensive structure and then, later,
tries to fill it and pay for the investment. In this case, the pyramid
will rise as people send remains.
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- "If we could get 10 percent of the cremations in
this country, we could finish it in six years."
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- It's too early to set a price range, the Dudeks say,
but an average unit in their pyramid would cost about $3,000. That falls
within the typical price range for niches, the spaces sold to keep ashes
in cemeteries and columbaria, which run between $500 and $20,000 nationwide,
according to the Cremation Association of North America.
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- If the first pyramid is a success, the brothers hope
to launch regional pyramids, including one in Michigan.
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- However, the brothers expect an uphill struggle in convincing
funeral directors to give families information about their project. So
they have started trying to reach families through an Internet site they
launched this week.
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- Funeral directors certainly will be skeptical, said Robert
Vandenbergh, general manager of Kaul Funeral Homes in Clinton Township
and treasurer of the National Funeral Directors Association.
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- "I imagine that in parts of the country, out in
California and that way, this idea might be very well accepted," said
Vandenbergh. "But in Michigan, we have a relatively traditional population."
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- A crucial factor for many families is finding a memorial
site that is close enough to visit, Vandenbergh said, and a A location
in the Southwest might be too far.
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- The Dudeks are aware of that problem but are betting
that the pyramid is such a classic design for a memorial that it will quickly
attract customers.
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- They also hope to benefit from rising cremation rates.
The proposed pyramid will include some spaces for whole-body entombment,
but the vast majority of the space will be for ashes.
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- In recent years, many religious groups have bowed to
the trend to cremation. For example, three years ago, Catholic leaders
in the United States finally allowed mourners to bring ashes into their
churches for funeral masses.
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- Between 1993 and 1998, the annual number of cremations
nationwide rose from 450,000 to more than 550,000. During that time in
Michigan, the portion of deaths followed by cremation rose from 21 to 27
percent.
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- In one-third of cremations, the ashes are handled similarly
to bodies: They are immediately placed in cemeteries or columbaria. However,
24 percent of ashes are scattered and 36 percent are carried to someone's
home.
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- "We know there are a huge number of people out there
with an urn of Aunt Sarah still sitting in a closet somewhere," said
Dan Dudek. "We hope a lot of these families will send their Aunt Sarahs
to the pyramid."
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- An attraction
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- Many families find the pyramid shape appealing, said
Ron Morrison, manager of a pyramid-shaped mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial
Gardens South, in Davie, Fla. The mausoleum is less than half the size
of those the Dudeks plan and is mainly a site for whole-body entombment.
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- "We've become a landmark in Broward County because
we're unique here," said Morrison.
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- His pyramid, completed in 1974, is 109 feet tall with
4,200 crypts -- half occupied and 85 percent sold.
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- What makes the Dudeks' plan unique is their return to
the Egyptians' basic idea of a nearly solid structure. The Davie mausoleum
is a pyramid-shaped building with a huge room inside, air conditioning,
offices and other conveniences.
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- In contrast, the Dudeks plan to interlock their blocks
to form an enormous solid structure with no electricity or mechanical devices
inside the pyramid. A visitor center outside the structure would contain
information about the people memorialized at the site, including a system
to locate remains inside the pyramid.
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- The Dudeks say they started planning two years ago after
they found themselves, like most aging Baby Boomers, thinking about the
end of their lives.
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- "My wife and I looked at cemeteries and other options
out there, but we didn't like what we saw," Dan Dudek said. "A
lot of places talk about perpetual care, but they can go bankrupt over
the years. Things can change. We want to build something that's more forever
than anything else we've seen. We want to build for the ages." _____
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- Go to <http://www.pyradevelopmment.comwww.pyradevelopmment.com
to read more about the Dudeks' plan. Go to <http://www.cremationassociation.org/www.cremationassociation.org/
for information from the Cremation Association of North America.
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- Contact DAVID CRUMM at 313-223-4526 or <mailto:crumm@freepress.comcrumm@freepress.com.
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