Maya Lin

We gave presentations in class this week on different influential figures of race in America. Although a lot of the groups did a great job, I thought that the most interesting presentation given was on architect Maya Lin. She is the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C, as well as many other great accomplishments in sculpting and land art in her short career. She is a Chinese American that was born in Athens, Ohio and after high school she had quite the academic resume. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1981 from Yale and a Master of Architecture degree in 1986. She has also been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Yale University, Harvard University, Williams College, and Smith College. She was among the youngest in Yale University when she received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts in 1987.

In 1981, at age 21 and while still an undergraduate, Lin won a public design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, beating out 1,441 other competition submissions. The black cut-stone masonry wall, with the names of 58,261 fallen soldiers carved into its face, was completed in late October 1982 and dedicated on November 13, 1982. The wall is granite and V-shaped, with one side pointing to the Lincoln Memorial and the other to the Washington Monument. Lin's conception was to create an opening or a wound in the earth to symbolize the gravity of the loss of the soldiers.

Lin, who now owns and operates Maya Lin Studio in New York City, went on to design other structures, including the Civil Rights Memorial inMontgomery, Alabama (1989) and the Wave Field at the University of Michigan (1995). In 1994, she was the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision. The title comes from an address she gave at Yale in which she spoke of the monument design process. Talking about the origin of her work, Lin says "My work originates form a simple desire to make people aware of their surroundings and this can include not just the physical but the psychological world that we live in."

In 2009, Maya Lin was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. Her work is very inspiring and innovative. At such a young age, she has accomplished so much and is a good role model for Asian Americans and anyone who respects hard work and commitment to achieving their goals and aspirations.