Allen - Blog 3

Not all architecture is a structure that has a roof or encloses space as is with buildings specifically; The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial is proof of this widely unrecognized fact.  The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial has been expanded from the initial design of then 23 year old Yale graduate Maya Lin that was selected in May 1981.  Today "the Wall" is iconic and recognized, but in its implementation - controversial.  The design by some was called "a scar" or "a black gash of shame" but in it's place at the western end of Constitution Gardens "'In the past 25 years, it has become something of a shrine,' said Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund President Jan Scruggs, who conceived the idea of building a memorial in 1979. 'It has helped people separate the warrior from the war, and it has helped a nation to heal.'" (Primary Source)

The design of the Memorial's walls point to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.  Given it's location in Constitution Gardens, architect Maya Lin looked to design a "park within a park" a quiet and contemplative memorial that was to be a black stone wall with a mirror like finish that would solemnly declare the names of those lost during the Vietnam War.  The names are in chronological order starting at the vertex, where the two wall sections meet creating the flattened V shape.
The wall is in two sections, East and West; each section is made up of 70 panels that meet with the names of those lost last chronologically to the names of the first casualties, bringing everything full circle in retrospect.  The sections gradually get bigger from the ends to the center where they meet.  This does not shrink the importance but work to build the magnitude of the sacrifices of the more than 58,000 military men and women named there.

image source: http://aarp.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/1280px-Vietnam_Veterans-Hu-Totya-1024x768.jpg

Primary Source: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2007/11/03/milestone-for-a-memorial-that-has-touched
Secondary Source: http://www.vvmf.org/vietnam-memorial-wall-design

The Memorial's walls

The Memorial's walls