US-based Chinese designer bridges architecture, community, and culture

In a city still redefining its sense of togetherness in the post-COVID years, the renewed 825 Third Avenue stands as an example of how design can restore connection.

The redevelopment, commissioned by The Durst Organization and designed by STUDIOS Architecture, has transformed a once conventional corporate tower into a workplace where human comfort and community take center stage.

"We wanted to create a space that restores energy and presence," Xiong said. "The office is no longer only a place to work, it has become a social ecosystem that helps people rediscover trust and togetherness."

The amenity floor combines lounge, meeting, and wellness areas in a continuous flow that encourages openness and interaction, and its subtle relationship between architecture and nature has given the interior a restorative character.

"The project reflects a growing global emphasis on empathy and well-being in architectural design," Xiong said.

Colleagues at STUDIOS describe Xiong as a designer who merges sensitivity with technical precision, integrating material choices, daylight strategies, and circulation planning with a consistent focus on how people feel within space.

"Design starts with listening," Xiong said, adding that this approach has become central to her practice and continues to inform her projects beyond commercial architecture.

Her independent work, Under the Elevated: Community Market Under the L Train, extends this philosophy into the public realm. The project, which received the 2025 MUSE Design Awards Silver Medal, reimagines the underused areas beneath Brooklyn's elevated train lines as active community markets. Xiong began the project with extensive fieldwork in Brownsville, one of New York's historically underserved neighborhoods. Rather than imposing a design from above, she engaged local residents in discussions about their needs and aspirations.

The resulting design proposed a funnel-shaped roof structure that shields pedestrians from water and debris falling from the train tracks while collecting and filtering greywater to sustain a green ecosystem below.

"Architecture can change how people see their own neighborhood," she said. "When design restores dignity, it restores confidence and gives people agency within the built environment, that's when space becomes a story of community."

Through both her professional and independent work, Ying Xiong demonstrates how architectural practice can serve as a bridge between design innovation and social responsibility.

The quiet balance between openness and comfort embodies Xiong's vision for architecture as a living dialogue, one that reminds people that beauty, community, and belonging can exist in the same space.

Please contact the writer at hanjingyan@chinadaily.com.cn