The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Architect was Maya Lin, a Chinese-American architect and artist. She was born in Athens, Ohio in 1959 and graduated from Yale University in 1981 with a degree in architecture. She won a national competition to design the memorial at the age of 21. The memorial was dedicated on November 13, 1982 and is located in Washington D.C. It is a black granite wall inscribed with the names of those who died in the Vietnam War.