minnesota vietnam veterans memorialminnesota vietnam veterans memorial The organizers of the memorial wanted it to evoke a reflective mood rather than make a political statement. The design needed to express honor and> remembrance, acknowledge valor and service, and affirm the need to grieve the loss of life and time of innocence before the war. The 2.4-acre site is located on the State Capitol grounds in St. Paul. Our proposal focused on the yin and yang of war and peace. A spiral path with year-by-year memorials etched in granite along the way evoked the lost time and lost life of the 1,053 Minnesotans who gave their lives during the Vietnam War. Like the Greeks, who walked mazes as a sort of spiritual cleansing, so the ascent of our circular maze was designed to act as a catharsis for those experiencing the memorial. The walkway, which culminated in a central granite monument, was surrounded with plantings of red splendor crabapple and Kentucky coffee trees. |
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