On this day in 1981, Maya Lin won the competition to design the Vietnam Memorial

Photo: Maya Lin speaking at the 28th Annual Crystal Awards, 2023. World Economic Forum / CC BY 3.0

On this day in 1981, American artist Maya Yang Lin, then an undergraduate at Yale, won a national design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., achieving national recognition. Lin has since designed numerous memorials, including the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1989. She is also known for her environmentally themed works, highlighting climate change, as well as her designs of public and private buildings, landscapes, and sculptures.
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