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photo: Carol M. Highsmith
Maya Lin’s elegantly simple design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial—two black granite walls emerging from and receding into the earth—was initially quite controversial but today is the standard against which all memorials are judged. The memorial is also the highest ranking project in the poll designed by a woman. The AIA honored the memorial with its 2007 Twenty-five Year Award, which recognizes structures of enduring significance completed 25 to 35 years ago.
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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on February 3, 2007 4:39 PM.
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Comments (5)
I am delighted to see that Maya Linn's fine design and the work of the Cooper-Lecky Partnership are being honored. I greatly appreciate Kent Cooper, and have lost touch with him. Would be grateful for news and contact information. Thanks.
Sherrie Connelly
Posted by Sherrie Connelly | February 8, 2007 4:02 AM
Posted on February 8, 2007 04:02
Linn's memorial is easily the most avant-garde of the top 20, and really is a work of brilliance in bringing the reality of sacrifice into the monuments that honor them. It's hard to imagine a memorial more powerful or moving than this minimalist masterpiece.
Posted by Ben Kehoe | February 8, 2007 2:49 PM
Posted on February 8, 2007 14:49
I love this one also. I remember well the controversy when it was proposed and built. Most people wanted something glorious and flashy, like most previous war memorials. This piece is stark, cold, imposing, sobering - and completely appropriate in my opinion. People dying at war may be unavoidable in some cases, but in no case is it glorious, and I don't think we should pretend otherwise.
Posted by Kevin | March 15, 2007 10:21 AM
Posted on March 15, 2007 10:21
For all of blunt power of Lin's wall, what gets me, emotionally, at the V.Memorial are the two traditional sculptures. Frederick Hart's "Three Soldiers" standing weary and confused looking like they've been walking all the way from Saigon. It is not glorious and flashy, yet there is heroism in their weariness. The other sculpture is Glenna Goodacre's "Vietnam Women's Memorial" showing two nurses, one cradling a dying soldier in her arms the other looking up, presumably at a rescue helocopter. The three sculptures combined demonstrate the grinding toll of war in general and Vietnam-the war we lost- in particular.
Posted by Craig Johnson | March 16, 2007 4:24 PM
Posted on March 16, 2007 16:24
Until you find and touch the name of someone on "The Wall" who meant
something to you, you cannot feel the full impact and emotion of this memorial. So many heartaches and tears are left at its base.
Posted by Corinne F. Wright | March 31, 2007 12:43 AM
Posted on March 31, 2007 00:43