Cushing Grant

Bradley E. Angell, Esq.
College of Architecture, Department of Architecture, Ph.D. Student
[email protected]
3965 South Highway 77, Cameron, Texas 76520
(979)571-4369
Application for the Cushing Memorial Library and Archives Graduate Award
Department Head: Michael O’Brien
Committee Chair: Professor Robert Warden
Expected Graduation Date: May 2010
Project Title and Description:
Development of an Urban-Architectural Model of Aggie Bonfire
This research project is a major component of my dissertation investigation of urban-architectural design after
exile with the creation of subject-based communities. In addition to my intensive research of cultural and
physical expression on an urban-architectural scale of Aggie Bonfire, I also intend to formulate urbanarchitectural models of Isla Vista, California; the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in Dharmasala, India; and Black
Rock City, Nevada. In addition to these real, physical manifestations of existing subject-based communities, I
will also be interpreting cinematic forms of subject-based communities. These include but are not limited to
'No Name City' of Paint Your Wagon; the 'House on Paper Street' of Fight Club; 'Archer City' of The Last Picture Show;
and 'Bartertown' of Mad Max and the Thunderdrome.
Subject-Based Communities are those communities that have a particular cultural bearing for the creation,
sustenance or preservation of a particular subject. These communities are based on a particular way of life at
odds with the globalized normative process oriented system for organizing the built environment. Reviewing
my subjects, there is an evident subject which is at the core of all urban-architectural planning, legal definition,
and cultural bearings for each community I have selected for investigation. [Dharmasala:Tibetan Buddhism //
Student Bonfire Site: Maintenance of Texas Aggie Bonfire // Black Rock City, NV: BurningMan Festival // No
Name City: Transient Mining // Bartertown: Post-Apocalyptic Capitalism]
In developing an Urban-Architectural Model of Aggie Bonfire, I will map not only the current spatial and
cultural environment of the community built to sustain the tradition, but will as well develop a mapping of the
tradition through time. In essence, I will retrace the movement of Aggie Bonfire from the first improvisational
event in 1902 in downtown Bryan, through the past 100 years to its current home in the rural backcountry of
Robertson County, Texas. Beyond just the placement of particular physical manifestations such as equipment
lodges, outdoor sheds, offices, equipment and the bonfire itself, I intend to assimilate a cultural representation
of the Aggie Bonfire by collecting and interpreting the images, texts, designs, and specific community attributes
that built Aggie Bonfire year after year for the past century. Further, I hope through reflection to find a basic
universal set of attributes for subject-based communities in their development of community from a
contemporary point of genesis.
In order to undertake such an endeavor, there is only one source for the materials I will require: the Cushing
Memorial Library. While making the documentary film 10 Years & 9 Days about postmodern urban design in
regards to Berlin and Aggie Bonfire, I spent over two weeks mining the rich resources of the library to
accumulate at least one image of the campus per year the Aggie Bonfire existed on campus. If possible, I wanted
at least one image per year of the Aggie Bonfire itself. As a continuation, with this project proposal, I endeavor
to advance from that beginning point and develop my catalog of information in the form of flat images of the
tradition, into a manifestation of an actual 3-D architecturally accurate model of the tradition over time. Using
relative distances in the photographs, any accounts I can find from documents housed in the library, and an
account of the means and methods of the bonfire construction, I will be able to pull together an extremely
Bradley E. Angell, Cushing Library Graduate Award, Page 1 of 2
useful model of the changes, the consistencies and anomalies of the Aggie Bonfire community in its chosen
subject not only for my own research, but also for reflection and success in the possibility that Aggie Bonfire
will continue in perpetuity (either on or off campus).
Beyond my own investigation of the Aggie Bonfire from interviews and those currently proceeding with the
tradition, the Cushing Library is the primary, if not only, source for my research. I will need at least a month, if
not more, time of intensive study to undertake this project’s scope. The support of the Glasscock Center for
Humanities Research is integral to undertaking this endeavor, and can insure that the appropriate resources are
available and utilized for its success.
Simply in the documentation I have already made with the film 10 Years & 9 Days, I have accumulated the
materials necessary for a running start on my urban-architectural model of Aggie Bonfire as an independent
cultural entity. I have collected many pieces of the art, design, structure, population changes, and even specific
terminology to this unique, vernacular and local community. As a sampling of some of the work I have already
undertaken, I have attached a selection of the images I collected and presented in the film below:
Select Bibliography:
At the Cushing Library, there is already housed a collection of documents specifically set aside as an archive of
Aggie Bonfire materials. As well, the entire library of Aggie Yearbooks through the life of the university is
essential in understanding the times as well as the actual pyro-structure itself. Specifically, I will be using all
the Longhorn Yearbooks, the Aggie Yearbooks, any and all maps of the Campus itself, archived aerial sketches
and photography, and finally, all those cultural evidentiary pieces I can accumulate such as testimonies, images,
art, sound recordings, and films (including the film We’ve Never Been Licked) at my disposal.
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