A Shift in the Stream Lesson Plan

Nationally renowned artist, sculptor and architect Maya Lin is best known for her design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. In 1995, the Principal Financial Group invited  her to create a work of art for a new building on its corporate campus. That work was A Shift in the Stream, which introduces trickles of water down the two-story-high glass walls of the building’s lobby. The water collects in a trench behind a long, jagged opening, like a running crack, at the bottom of the lobby wall. A Shift in the Stream refers to the shift from the work environment to a reflective, personal space evoked by running water.

(Revised Overview from York: The Century History Company, 1903, Vol. IV, pp. 153-154).