Oles Lin and the Vietnam Memorial

Thirty years ago, the young student architect Maya Lin got some help from architect/artist Paul Stevenson Oles. Both Oles and Lin submitted proposals for a new Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C, but the committee was more interested in Lin's design. The problem was not with Lin's beautiful and poignant ideas, but her drawings were vague and ambiguous.

Steve Oles redrew Maya Lin's winning entry to clarify her intent and explain her submission. Groundbreaking for her controversial design took place on this day, March 26, in 1982.

Read More:

• The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall
• Maya Ying Lin
• Drawings for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at the Library of Congress

^{Image by Maya Ying Lin (b. 1959), Vietnam Veterans Memorial proposal, mixed media on paper on board, 1981, Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-4915. Source: Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Library of Congress.}