LIN, Maya, American architect and designer, b-1959. While still only a student in architecture at Yale in 1980, Maya submitted a design for the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial (which was to be built in 1982). Her entry was selected from 1,400 others. The judges unanimously endorsed the brilliant simplicity of her design. The Wall, as it came to be known, consisted of 2 long panels of black granite in an open chevron, which sink into the earth at their meeting point. The effect as viewers move along the channel in front is hard to describe. It makes no political statement and everyone is deeply affected by it. The Memorial is in Constitution Gardens in Washington DC.