Maya Lin's Memorial: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Nicholas Capasso once said, “ The national Vietnam Veterans Memorial may have generated more controversy than any work of architecture in recent history”. Three parts make up the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which are “The Wall”, The Three Soldiers statue, and The Vietnam Women’s Memorial. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall was a tribute which is in Washington DC. Maya Lin entered a nationwide competition to create a design for the wall and won. The wall is made of two black granite walls that form a V-shape and has the names of all 57,939 Americans who died during the war. There was much controversy on the design of the wall. Despite the back and forth arguments about the wall’s design, it is clearly an appropriate tribute to the Vietnam Veterans.

In October 1980, Maya Lin was a 21 year old architect student at Yale when the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Fund announced their nationwide competition for a design. All submissions were submitted as anonymous. There were few guidelines for the competition, “the design should (1) Be reflective and contemplative in character (2) Harmonize with its surroundings (3) Contain the names of those who had died in the conflict or who were still missing (MIA, POW) (4) Make no political statement about the war.”. Maya Lin designed the wall for an assignment of her

Although certainly many people have different viewpoints on the design, the design is much more than what people see. Maya Lin entered a nation wide competition with over 1,400 other submissions and hers won, so it is evident that people thought her design was extraordinary. Also, she put real thought into her work and wanted to honor the veterans. She had reasons to the way so created her designs to make her work meaningful. Not everyone is going to agree on the same thing. Despite, the conflicts of the design, we should be honoring those who died and grateful that we our