Remembering the Syracuse Architect Who Made Silence Visible

Veterans & Military-Connected Individuals The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery Veterans & Military-Connected Individuals Remembering the Syracuse Architect Who Made Silence Visible Lorimer Rich shaped a nation’s grief in plain marble to create the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. His papers now live in the Syracuse University Archives. Kelly Homan Rodoski Nov. 11, 2026 Estimated Reading Time: Share × Video Player In 1914, a young man from Camden, New York, left Syracuse University with an architecture degree and a head full of drawings. Within a few years, he went into service as a U.S. Army infantryman in World War I. Lorimer W. Rich had spent years imagining the creation of buildings. Now, he experienced the destruction of war. When the fighting ended, Rich continued his studies in Italy. Returning to the United States, he joined the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White in New York City, and after eight years he struck out on his own.

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