At 22, she designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; she’s since created the stirring Wavefield at Storm King and is currently working on the Smith College library. So, artist or architect? “There are architects that make art, and then I think there are artists who make architecture,” she says, “and I would sort of see myself as the latter.” She is eloquent about the differences between the two. We spoke at the Museum of Chinese in America one week after the presidential election and a few hours after she learned she was to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom; the mood was… complicated. The music was by Jason Kao Hwang.

•  PERSON: Vincent Scully
•  PLACE: Teshima Art Museum
•  THING: clay
•  RANDY’S PLACE: 165 Crosby St.