Lao_Linqing_Portfolio

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Linqing (Laurie) Lao 1

Linqing (Laurie) Lao

Syracuse University 2020-2025 Email: laolinqing@gmail.com Contact: 315-928-0369 Lauguages: English, Mandarin, Cantonese

EDUCATION

AWARD

Syracuse University, Bachelor of Architecture 2020-2025

James A. Britton Memorial Awards -- First Prize

Syracuse University Architecture Abroad Spring 2022 New York City Fall 2023 London, UK Fall 2024 Los Angeles

WORK EXPERIENCE SYA Architecture + Interiors | New York City, NY Junior Architecture Designer Jan 2026- Aug 2026 Bestor Architecture | Los Angeles , CA Architecture Design Intern Sep 2024-Dec 2024 PRDG Architecture + Interiors | New York City, NY Architecture Design Intern June 2024-Aug 2024

SELECTED WORKS 2021-2026

PolyGone System & Banksliu Design | Princeton, NJ Design Intern June 2023- Aug 2023

Citations for Excellence in Design Research The Dean’s List 2020-2025

SKILL Design & BIM - Rhino - Revit - SketchUp - AutoCAD Visualization - V-Ray - Enscape - Twinmotion - Lumion - D5 Render

Documentation - Bluebeam Revu - Microsoft Office Fabrication - Laser Cutting - 3D Printing - CNC Fabrication Adobe CC - Illustrator - InDesign - Photoshop

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CONTENTS

COMPETITION

ACADEMIC

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ROTATABOAT

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01 MINECRAFT

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02 ALMOST HOME

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03 WHEN WE GROW

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07

OFFICE PROJECTS

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04 DJI PAVILION

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FREELANCER PROJECTS

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05 LPC HEADQUARTER

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PROFESSIONAL

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01 Minecraft Future Develpo Cohousing+Construction Fablab

This project aims to transform Bushwick by introducing affordable co-housing and an education center focused on construction renewal. As a historically diverse neighborhood facing urban decline, Bushwick benefits from this initiative, which seeks to restore livability while preserving community identity.

The proposal provides both housing and learning opportunities for low-income residents. The fabric lab serves as a training ground for construction skills, enabling residents to contribute to community revitalization while earning an income. Inspired by Minecraft’s stacking and rotation principles, the design creates flexible, interwoven spaces while minimizing the building’s footprint to preserve existing vegetation. The structure features four distinct spatial experiences: private living units, a gray space for shared adaptability, and both interior and exterior public areas. An underground fab lab and multi-level workshops further allow residents to continuously modify and personalizxe their homes.

The facade’s frame system encloses an open public space, allowing future expansion based on residents’ needs. Additionally, exterior staircases connect to the structure, inviting public engagement and celebrating the building’s evolving form.

Instructor: Marcos Parga Date: Design Studio 307 2022 Fall Collobrators : Huilin Wu Site: Buskwick, New York Software: Rhino 7 , Vray , Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

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History of Buskwick- Gentrification

Bushwick has undergone dramatic changes over the past decade. Rapid gentrification has led to rising rents and the displacement of many long-time residents.

SITE CONDITION Map Existing Trees

Shape Around the

Define Base Module

Form Co-Housing

Duplicatea And Rotate

Create Housing Module

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3RD FLOOR PLAN

4TH FLOOR PLAN

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GROUND FLOOR PLAN

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02 ALMOST HOME Collective living room prototype for post-disaster recovery

Almost Home is a collective living room prototype for post-disaster recovery in California, where wildfires, earthquakes, and mudslides often displace communities. Instead of waiting years for reconstruction, this space invites residents to return early, rebuild with neighbors, reuse salvaged materials, reassemble furniture, and restore what’s meaningful.

In the wake of disaster, emergency shelters offer basic survival—but they often lack the emotional support, sense of belonging that people need to truly begin healing. Our prototype serves as a supplement to these shelters: a collective living room and storage space built on where residents once lived. It supplements emergency shelters by offering a place to cook, connect, and heal—a reminder of home in uncertain times.It’s a place where people can gather during the day, before returning to temporary shelters at night.

Rather than waiting for skilled labor and industrialized materials, residents are encouraged to come back as soon as possible and participate in rebuilding using simple tools and techniques.

They are able to collect debris of tiles or bricks, beloved personal items and have a place to restore them, or fix broken furniture which they hold personal memories.

As permanent homes are rebuilt, Almost Home can remain as a garden, memorial, or gathering space. It’s about restoring not just buildings, but lives—together, grounded in what remains.

Instructor: Marcos Parga, Omar Ali Date: Direct Reasearch 2025 Spring Collobrators : Tairan Fang Site: Los Angeles, CA Software: Rhino 7 ,Vray , Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop Award: James A. Britton Memorial Awards First Prize 10

This timeline captures the site’s transformation before the 2014 Chilean wildfire, immediately after the disaster, and throughout the years of reconstruction. Rather than a single moment of destruction, the images reveal recovery as a gradual and ongoing process. This long-term transformation became the starting point for this proposal.

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1. Construction

2. Living

3. Ruin

1. Construction

2. Living

3. Ruin

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This drawing catalogs a modular system of salvaged furniture, reassembled and adapted to create flexible domestic elements. It highlights how discarded pieces can be given new life, supporting the Almost Home vision of resilient and evolving community spaces.

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03 WHEN WE GROW OLD A new model of elderly community Highgate has a high elderly population and abundant green spaces, but lacks safe, convenient, and dedicated areas for seniors to socialize. Many elderly residents, especially those in social housing, lack suitable gathering spaces. With Highgate Station as a central hub and well-connected transport system, we propose a “living room” concept—a space between public and private—bridging the commercial upper hill and residential lower hill.

Our design prioritizes a seamless transition from public to private spaces, preserving nature while creating peaceful areas around trees. Pathways encircle buildings with high visibility, following the principle of “look out instead of look after” to integrate elderly care into the neighborhood.

Research this semester identified Highgate’s aging trend and the need for a new community care model. While elderly care facilities are sufficient, terrain challenges and green space inaccessibility hinder senior engagement. Notably, areas with high green coverage in London also experience increased crime rates. Inspired by the slogan, “We don’t need someone to look after, but someone to look out for each other,” our project focuses on three key aspects: community, nature, and accessibility.

Instructor: Amber Bartosh, Vanessa Lastrucci Date: Design Studio 407 2022 Fall Collobrators : Tairan Fang, Xingtao Li Site: Highgate, London Software: Rhino 7 ,Vray , Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop 18

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04 DJI Pavilion A Dji Branding Pop up Pavilion + City Alloment This semester, we were tasked with designing a pop-up store for DJI near SCIArc. As a leader in the commercial drone industry, DJI has revolutionized sectors such as filmmaking, construction, and agriculture, solidifying its international significance. Drones are reshaping how we interact with the sky, making Los Angeles—home to young consumers, tourists, and film industry professionals—an ideal location to expand DJI’s brand presence and global reach.

We propose a temporary structure on the LA River, a historically significant site that once thrived as an agricultural hub before evolving into a transportation corridor.

Over time, urbanization has left the river degraded and disconnected from the city’s vibrancy. The DJI pop-up store serves not only as an opportunity for global branding but also as an exhibition exploring the river’s revitalization—driven by drones.

More than a conventional branding space, the project envisions drones autonomously operating an allotment, demonstrating their potential beyond traditional applications. The pop-up store is suspended by two large tower cranes positioned side by side, supporting an allotment terrace attached to the 4th Street Bridge. Inspired

by Chinese terraced landscapes, the structure reflects DJI’s cultural identity while celebrating the beauty of precision farming.

Visitors are invited to walk through the terrace, surrounded by drones in action, dynamically importing, planting, irrigating, and eventually delivering trays of flowers to various locations in Los Angeles.

Instructor: Herwig Baumgartner Date: Design Studio 500 AT SCI-ARC 2024 Fall Collobrators : Tairan Fang Site: Los Angeles, CA Software: Rhino 7 ,Vray , Grasshopper , Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

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The structure offers flexibility, allowing the pavilion to be easily constructed, relocated, and dismantled, enabling installation in different locations based on need.

The terrace is suspended by cables and supported by a steel structure, ensuring stability while maintaining a lightweight presence. Above, the adaptive roof system provides climate control, shielding the allotment from extreme temperatures 25

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The modular trays, pixel-like in arrangement, can be 3D-printed at SCI- Arc, reinforcing the intersection of technology, design, and environmental renewal 27

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05 Headquarters of LPC Revitalizing Ruins for Civic Life

Located within the ruins of a church and community grocery shop, the new home of LPC merges restoration with contemporary intervention, preserving the historical significance of the site while fostering a civic-oriented space. The project aims to redefine the relationship between ruins and urban renewal, offering a new typology that balances preservation with functionality.

To maintain the centricity of the church facade within the block, the new structure is set back to align with the adjacent townhouse, ensuring clear visibility from Second Avenue and East 7th Street. The building consists of three collage volumes and a floating box, each serving distinct functions within LPC. The left side houses an exhibition space, a material lab, an archive tower, and office space, deliberately separated to distinguish public and private areas. A skylight between the volumes introduces natural light, enhancing transparency and connectivity within the institution.

The project embraces the contrast between old and new, vertical and wide, open and enclosed, creating a layered architectural dialogue. By integrating these spatial contrasts, it fosters open programming and civic engagement, reinforcing landmark preservation while adapting to contemporary needs. Through this interplay of history and modernity, the LPC headquarters not only safeguards the past but also envisions a dynamic future for urban preservation and community interaction.

Instructor: Rami Abou-Khalil Date: Design Studio 407 2023 Spring Collobrators : Xingtao Li Site: New York City, New York Software: Rhino 7 ,Vray , Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop 30

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06 Micro Home Adaptive Rotating Living Space

City Tent features two rotating cylindrical modules and a fixed module housing essential facilities like a toilet and shower, balancing flexibility with necessary amenities.

The central rotating module includes a living area with a sofa and TV, a kitchenette, and a workspace. The window-side module maximizes natural light and views, incorporating a dining area, an additional living space, and a sleeping zone. By independently rotating these modules, occupants can explore nine unique spatial configurations, adapting the space to different activities.

Each module integrates a movable storage shelf that remains upright, like a Ferris wheel, ensuring accessibility in any arrangement. Parallel walls maintain transparency along the north-south axis and privacy east-west, while staggered spaces allow visibility without direct interaction, fostering a dynamic yet private living experience.

MicroHome Competition Date: 2023 Summer Collabrators: Tairan Fang, Ziqi Wang Software: Rhino 7 , Vray , Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

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In addition, each rotating cylindrical module in City Tent features a movable storage shelf. These shelves are designed to remain in a vertical position, resembling a Ferris wheel, regardless of the rotation of the modules. This ensures that the storage shelves can be easily accessed and utilized in any configuration.

With this configuration, City Tent provides residents with a comprehensive living experience that caters to their various needs throughout the day.

The ability to rotate these modules allows for easy transitions between different activities and the exploration of unique spatial arrangements, enhancing the adaptability and personalization of the living space.

We adopted the structure of parallel walls, which maintains our transparency in the north-south direction and privacy in the east-west direction. We consciously stagger each space to ensure that everyone can see other groups of people without direct contact. of looking at each other.

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SYA

07 PROFESSIONAL WORKS

ARCHITECTURAL + INTERIOR DESIGN

STEVEN M. YANG ARCHITECT LLC 27 WEST 20TH STREET | SUITE 703 | NEW YORK NY 10011 WWW.SYA.NYC | T +347 321 9140 | F +347 321 9141

SYA Architecture + Interiors 2026

SITE: TRIBECA,NEW YORK RESPONSIBILITY: • SD:MATERIAL RESEARCH • DD:MODEL MAKING,MEETING PREP • CD:PLANS, ELEVATION Software: • AutoCAD • Rhino • Lumion

UNIT 11/12B ENTRY

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SCHEMATIC PLAN 1A - 12TH FLOOR 1/4" = 1'-0"

FRANKEL RESIDENCE

335 GREENWICH STREET #11/12B NEW YORK, NY 10013

UNIT #11/12 B SCHEMATIC PLANS

UNIT 11/12B ENTRY

SD-1C

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SCHEMATIC PLAN 1A - 11TH FLOOR 1/4" = 1'-0"

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2

SCHEMATIC PLAN 1A - 12TH FLOOR 1/4" = 1'-0"

UNIT 11/12B ENTRY

1

SCHEMATIC PLAN 1A - 11TH FLOOR 1/4" = 1'-0"

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SYA

ARCHITECTURAL + INTERIOR DESIGN

STEVEN M. YANG ARCHITECT LLC 27 WEST 20TH STREET | SUITE 703 | NEW YORK NY 10011 WWW.SYA.NYC | T +347 321 9140 | F +347 321 9141

UNIT 11/12B ENTRY

2

SCHEMATIC PLAN 1A - 12TH FLOOR 1/4" = 1'-0"

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PROFESSIONAL WORKS SYA Architecture + Interiors 2026 SOFTWARE: SITE: UPPER WEST,NEW YORK • AutoCAD RESPONSIBILITY: • Rhino • SD:MATERIAL RESEARCH • DD:DIGITAL MODEL MAKING,MEETING PREP • CD:PLANS, ELEVATION,DETAILS

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PROFESSIONAL WORKS SYA Architecture + Interiors 2026 SITE: CINCINNATI,OHIO RESPONSIBILITY: • CD: FINISH/ PLUMBING SCHEDULE • CD: PLANS, ELEVATION SOFTWARE: • AutoCAD • Rhino

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PROFESSIONAL WORKS SYA Architecture + Interiors 2026 SITE: UPPER EAST,NEW YORK RESPONSIBILITY: • SD:SCHEMATIC PLANS SOFTWARE: • AutoCAD • Rhino • Lumion

LIVING ROOM 000

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GUEST BEDROOM 000

KITCHEN

DINING

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EP-2

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EP-1

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OFFICE

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SCHEMATIC PLAN 12 - 5JK

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3/8" = 1'-0"

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MAIN BATH 000

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PROFESSIONAL WORKS

PRDG Architecture + Interiors 2024 SITE: Long Island,New York RESPONSIBILITY: • SD:SCHEMATIC PLANS,RENDERS SOFTWARE: • Rhino • V-Ray

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08 FREELANCE WORKS SITE: ZHUHAI,CHINA TYPE:ADPATIVE AND REUSE,CAFE RESPONSIBILITY: • SD: IDEATION & MATERIAL RESEARCH • DD:MODEL MAKING,RENDERINGS SOFTWARE: • Rhino • V-ray This project is located on Guishan Island in Zhuhai, where an idle government-owned warehouse was converted into a café. The design keeps the original structure while adding curved openings, narrow windows, and glass-brick panels to frame sea, tree, and mountain views. An outdoor terrace and extended eaves create shaded areas and connect the building with its surroundings. Finished in a clean beige textured plaster, the once plain warehouse is reshaped into a simple, inviting seaside café.

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EXISTING

COMPLETED

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FREELANCE WORKS

EXISTING

SITE: SHAMIAN ISLAND, GUANGZHOU, CHINA TYPE: ADPATIVE AND REUSE,、 RESPONSIBILITY: • SD: CONCEPT DESIGN & SPACE PLANNING • DD: 3D MODELING, DRAWINGS & MATERIAL RESEARCH SOFTWARE: • Rhino • V-ray Originally built as the temporary U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, this historic building on Shamian Island is being adapted into a restaurant. The proposal preserves the architectural identity of the existing structure while introducing a contemporary dining environment. I supported the project through the schematic design and design development phases, contributing to design studies, spatial planning, 3D modeling, drawing production, and material research.

RENDER

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