A nearly one-million-dollar bronze elephant statue is projected to be installed at O’Brien Square in either late summer or early fall of 2026, according to the commissioned artist for the piece Matthew Gray Palmer.
The Titan Statue is a donor-funded project, costing a total of $926,275. The sum was attained through multiple individual donors, where the project itself is being spearheaded by the Cal State Fullerton Philanthropic Foundation.
The project was initially launched in March 2023 when Palmer was commissioned by the CSUF Philanthropic Foundation to create the statue. It has been previously advertised to be completed in the spring of 2025, which the sign in O’Brien still reads, and was later projected to be finished in May 2026 during a September 2025 Academic Senate meeting.
According to the artist, it was a collaborative effort by himself and multiple campus organizations in solidifying its final decided form.
The concept for the statue was constructed by Associated Students leaders, CSUF Alumni Association and a collection of external partners.
“The process was highly collaborative, involving multiple rounds of dialogue among board committees, administrators, and student groups,” Palmer wrote in an email to the Daily Titan. “Design aesthetics, symbolism, materials, and scale were discussed in depth, and several approaches were explored.”
The figure of the statue has been finalized to be an anatomically-correct, full-scale elephant, stepping up onto a platform with the trunk reaching upwards.
Built through digital, physical and hand-made efforts through its different phases, the statue is now in the “fabrication phase,” according to the sculptor, with 72 individual bronze panels being assembled to complete the Titan Statue.
While this attempt to implement the statue was announced initially in 2019, the efforts to attain the elephant figure began in the 1990s, but the original project was ultimately scrapped.
“This project originated in 1995 following interest from students, alumni and donors for the creation of a visible landmark to celebrate Titan pride, strengthen alumni engagement and enhance the campus experience,” wrote Director of Media Relations Cerise Metzger in a university statement to the Daily Titan.
Though this project is being pursued at a time when the university is in a $29 million dollar deficit, the funding is unrelated to the university’s budget.
Located between McCarthy Hall and Gordon Hall, O’Brien Square will house the to-scale elephant statue, built to “reflect the ambitions, diversity and pride of Cal State Fullerton Titans past, present and future,” according to CSUF.