Established in 1853 and designed by landscape architect Howard Daniels in the “rural” style, Riverside Cemetery encompasses 36.4 acres along the steep west bank of the Naugatuck River in downtown Waterbury. A central stream flows downward from the west cemetery edge, filling three ponds before eventually reaching the Naugatuck. Family plots marked with large central monuments step up the tiered slopes. Locally produced brass and bronze appear in several of the monuments, including a full-size elk sculpture standing on a high point watching over the landscape. Riverside Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Privately owned and operated, the cemetery has provided interment space to the people of Waterbury for over 170 years, yet over the past several decades, Riverside has become increasingly burdened by a lack of available interment space. Nearly all in-ground plots have been sold, and revenue from plot sales is rapidly diminishing. To address this shortage, the Trustees of Riverside Cemetery hired MLLA to identify sites within the existing landscape that could accommodate expansion. The resulting Space Utilization Plan located six such sites and illustrated how each could be altered to hold both in-ground and columbarium niches for cremated remains. MLLA designed each site to blend with the existing historic landscape.