Maya Lin readily admits that her career is made up of three different areas: architecture, memorial and art. The memorial line, which she calls it, started here in Washington, D.C. over 20 years ago, when she won a competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. more ›

Written by DCist Contributor Ben Schuman-Stoler We all know about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, but probably mostly as a stop on the round-the-Mall tour we give visiting family and friends. If they ask, we tell them that a young woman won a competition in the '80s. They say, “Wow, that’s interesting. What a great memorial.” But it remains an emotional site, its message solemn and powerful, which we were reminded of when two acts of... more ›

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund announced yesterday that their proposed Visitor Center received the final go-ahead from the National Capitol Planning Commission, which oversees the approval and design of monuments and memorials in D.C. The privately funded, $100 million complex will supplement Maya Lin’s 1982 Memorial Wall, with exhibits and programs to tell the story of the Vietnam War and commemorate the soldiers who fought it. The Visitor Center will be built just west of the Wall in the area between it and the Lincoln Memorial; however, NCPC requires that it be completely buried and hidden from view, in order to preserve the openness and visual order of the Mall. The Polshek Partnership, architect of the Clinton Library and the Newseum/Freedom Forum, was selected in 2004 to design the Center. more ›