The Bright Stars Memorial is a city sponsored memorial to commemorate the victims, survivors, and first responders of a 2019 mass shooting in Midland and Odessa. While the artist designed the sculpture and cylindrical shape of the memorial, it was the landscape architects’ job to locate the memorial within the larger campus as well as design the approach to the sculptural heart. After hearing from the community that they wanted a place of reflection, the design team proposed to locate the memorial in a quieter part of campus and for the approach to be a journey from nearby existing parking – through a shade structure, over a bridge across a playa and up a spiral path up an earthen landform made from excavation required for the new stormwater strategy playas, minimizing the amount of soil that needs to be imported or moved off site. The memorial itself is surrounded by 32 Desert Willows, each tree representing a victim of the shooting. Passing through the trees you enter the heart of the memorial, where an 11-foot-tall iron sculpture has cut-out quotes from family members of the victims which at night are lit up and projected across the plaza. Natural stone materials were selected for the plaza and surrounding seating to reinforce the feeling that this memorial is carved from the site – a true testament to the connection between community and ecology.