The Graphic Statics behind the Collier Memorial

This paper reviews the various graphic statics methods applied during the early structural design of the Collier Memorial, Cambridge, MA. Built in 2015 to honor fallen MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, the monument is a vaulted assembly of massive granite blocks. They are held together with pure compression contact when under the action of gravity alone. This non-conventional structural typology has only rare contemporary precedents and its design consequently innovates in various areas. In particular, assumptions of plastic theory and graphic statics have been combined to explore the design space, to assess stability, to study collapse mechanisms and to provide factors of safety related to maximum allowed displacements and maximum allowed live load. These methods proved to be a faster and sounder alternative to conventional discrete-element methods during the conceptual design stage.