Project Details

Located on the National Mall in Washington, DC, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial design was conceived by Maya Lin, an architecture student at Yale University. The design was selected as the winner of a national design competition, one of the largest in history at the time with over 1,400 entries. Lecky’s firm, Cooper-Lecky Architects, was selected as the Architects-of-Record for the project, and, as such, developed all the details, construction documents, and specifications for the project. Dedicated in 1972, the memorial received the distinguished AIA 25 Year Design Award in 2007. Last year the memorial was visited by more than four million people.

“The Wall,” as it has become known, is constructed from black granite slabs, quarried in India, cut and polished in Barre, Vermont, and blasted with over 58,000 names in Memphis, Tennessee. Behind the granite panels is a 500-foot long concrete retaining wall. Though there was great controversy about the design and the designer when they were made public, the memorial has become a national icon, both visited and praised by millions of people around the world.