Texas A&M University Bonfire Memorial

The Bonfire Memorial commemorates the twelve students who died in the bonfire collapse at Texas A&M University in 1999. The memorial is a series of alternating stone slabs and twelve portals oriented in the directions of the twelve students’ hometowns. Each portal consists of three monolithic unreinforced stone slabs that were imported from China and are linked together by dowels at their top corners. The two vertical stones in each portal are embedded approximately three feet into the grade-beam and jacked rigidly into position using post-tensioning rods and expansive concrete in the void between them. The entire ring rests on a grade-beam and drilled piers.