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Aha Moment Maker: Monumental Critiques

by Your friends at OIC on October 26, 2013

A judge holding a numbered sign, symbolizing the harsh critiques faced by Vietnam Veterens Memorial designer Maya Lin

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, 1981—Sculptor and architect Maya Lin was just a 21-year-old senior at Yale University when her design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was chosen from over 1,400 entries.

Her winning design was initially created as a project for her funereal architecture class, and not for the competition. Only later did she decide to enter it.

A bit of architectural lore is that her professor in that class gave her a B+ on the project. The professor, however, maintains that she actually received an A on that assignment, and that the B+ was her final grade for his course.

Lin herself may not recall the specific grade she received, but she never forgot the harsh words of criticism he had for a different war memorial design of hers from an earlier assignment. The professor’s assessment? He told Lin, in anger, “If I had a brother who died in that war, I would never want to visit this memorial.”

Lin’s classroom experience not only developed her design skills, but likely prepared her for the many criticisms she would hear and face on the way to making her groundbreaking concept a reality. Today, the memorial she designed has become one of the most visited sites in Washington, D.C.

What’s the aha moment you see?

 

Image © iStockphoto

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