The Design Team

With legislation supporting The Education Center at The Wall signed into law late in 2003, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund launched a nationwide design competition for the Center.

The selection committee included Maya Lin, the design competition winner for The Wall itself, as a special advisor.

Architects Polshek Partnership, LLP, and exhibit designers Ralph Appelbaum Associates Inc., were selected. Their combined portfolios include the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and the recently opened interactive Newseum. Polshek is also known for work on the American Museum of Natural History’s Rose Center for Earth and Space. Appelbaum also created the poignant exhibits for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The Design Concept

Preserving the vista and hallowed nature of The Wall and all the memorials gracing the National Mall, the design team has developed a dramatic two-story underground facility filled with life and remembrances.

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"This is a place where memories weave, where hearts heal. This is a place where people can feel what Lincoln called the mystic chords of memory, ‘stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land."