Maya Lin won a competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at just 21 years old. Her design, a V-shaped wall made of black granite with the names of 58,000 US soldiers killed or missing in the war, was controversial but became a popular and powerful symbol. Lin went on to design other monuments, buildings, sculptures, and furniture, always showing her creative and original side. She was born in Ohio to Chinese immigrant parents who were both professors, and she combined her education in art and architecture with history and the environment. Lin’s design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was not a political statement, but a memorial and remembrance of an era and 58,000 lost people.
When she was just 21 years old, Maya Lin won the competition to design a Vietnam Veterans Memorial for Washington, D.C. Out of 1,400 projects by professional architects, designers and artists, Lin’s design was chosen, and at the time it was still at the college . Between controversy and instant fame, she went on to design other monuments, buildings, sculptures and furniture, always showing her creative and original side.
Maya Lin was born in 1959 in Athens, Ohio, the daughter of Chinese immigrants who met in the United States. Both of her parents were professors, her father a pottery professor and her mother a literature professor. A passion for art ran in Maya Lin’s family, with her brother Tan becoming a poet and professor.
Lin decided to pursue an education in both art and architecture, combining the two fields with history and the environment. While studying architecture at Yale University, Maya Lin and her classmates heard about a competition to design a memorial honoring US Vietnam Veterans. Maya decided that the memorial should not overwhelm the allotted land, but become part of it.
Maya Lin painted a V-shaped wall, made of polished black granite, listing the names of the 58,000 US servicemen and women soldiers killed or missing during the Vietnam War. She imagined the names in chronological order, with the dates of each person’s death or disappearance listed alongside their name. Maya Lin wanted the memorial to be both visual and tangible to remember those who were lost.
Instead of a political statement, Maya Lin simply wanted to create a memorial and remembrance of an era and 58,000 lost people. She did not want to create further controversy over the Vietnam War, as the United States had been deeply divided during the war, with war veterans experiencing insults and sometimes violence when they returned home.
Some people were concerned about a young student of Asian descent who was planning the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Others were concerned about Maya Lin’s design, especially since she resembled a scar or a deep gash in the earth. Lin stuck to her plan, believing it was important to include all names to show the depth of American losses. She also saw the design as critical, symbolizing a wound that would heal but would always leave a scar on the nation’s history.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened in Washington, DC in 1982, and is visited by millions of people each year. Maya Lin earned a master’s degree in architecture, opened an art studio and started a family. In 1989 she designed the Civil Rights Memorial in Alabama: a circle of black granite with the names of Americans killed in the civil rights movement along with important events of the time, covered by flowing water. Lin also designed the Langston Hughes Library in Tennessee and the Women’s Table at Yale University.
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