NYVVM

New York, new york

The New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a freestanding glass block and granite wall located in Lower Manhattan, is fabricated of sandblasted glass block panels upon which have been etched excerpts from diaries, letters and news dispatches sent home during the Vietnam War. The memorial is not a roster of the dead, but an oral history which embodies the wildly variant yet universally shared experiences of war and peace and a troubled nation Vietnam was like no other war and this glass memorial is unlike any other war memorial. The contradictory and inexplicable nature of the Vietnam War made glass block the uniquely appropriate material for this memorial. The words of the soldiers, their families, and their countrymen etched upon this unique glass structure will be an everlasting reminder of a difficult and trying period in our history.