The journey continues inside with an immersive exploration of the planet’s waters and their intricate ecosystems. Guests enter a lush atrium evoking the Amazon in the wet season, walking among arapaimas and tetras before descending to meet the ancient creatures of Ohio’s Scioto River.
The path ascends through Pacific Northwest kelp forests and rocky outcrops, ending in sunlit tide pools above. The experience comes full circle at the edge of the Scioto River—now seen with new perspective—revealing the patterns and connections that unite Earth’s waters.
The descent experience begins outside the Aquarium, immersing guests before entry. Key connections to the landscape include views of the Scioto River and outdoor access at the Pacific Northwest habitat. Back-of-house vehicle access is discreetly screened by berms along the east side.
Building Entrance
Guests find themselves slowing down as they ealize they are literally descending below the surface of the local wetlands, seeing the water, plants, and living things that call them home from a new and different perspective. The descent also heightens guests awareness of and connection to water as they continue toward the welcoming entrance to the Aquarium.
02 THE DIEGO RIVERA THEATER
Cultural Heart of the City College of San Francisco
LMN Architects, 2022 - 2023 Schematic Design & Design Development
Location: 75 Frida Kahlo Way, San Francisco, CA
Responsibility:design iteration; 3D modeling/rendering; interior design of the lobby, rehearsal room, and theater; utilizing Revit for floor plans and reflected ceiling plans; flythrough animation.
The Theater will be the home of Diego Rivera’s Pan American Unity mural while providing a central base for the music and drama academic departments.
The building’s program includes three concrete blocks of differing sizes, each containing a separate performance venue. The blocks are united by a frame that also wraps around the mural lobby, where the mural will reside. The venues include a 600-seat performance hall, 150-seat studio theater, and 100-seat recital hall- all optimized for different performance experiences. The building will also contain plentiful instructional spaces, practice rooms, and administrative offices.
Designed to be a centerpiece on the City College of San Francisco campus, the Diego Rivera Theater will support its educational mission while also being a destination for visitors to San Francisco and an anchor of the local arts community.
TOPAZ BLUE AUDITORIUM
GOLDEN WHEAT LARGE REHEARSAL
CELADON GREEN CHORAL/RECITAL
TERRA COTTA STUDIO THEATRE
Pan American Unity mural
VESTIBULE CARPET
VESTIBULE ACOUSTIC WALL & CEILING PANELS
WOOD PANELS
PAINT
SEAT UPHOLSTERY
CONCRETE FLOOR
AISLE CARPET
DRAPES
WALL
Building A
04
900 VIRGINIA
Efficient, Sustainable, Superlative, Evocative Office Experience in Seattle
LMN Architects, 2024, Concept Design
Location: 900 Virginia, Seattle, WA
Gross Building Area: 425,000 GSF
Responsibility: development of alternative design options;3D modeling/rendering;
900 Virginia is set to redefine the office experience by addressing the evolving dynamics of the commercial real estate market in Seattle and beyond. As the manner, location, and timing of work undergo significant transformations, 900 Virginia distinguishes itself with exceptional quality and a diverse range of amenities. Design features that promote health, wellness, and sustainability will converge to create spaces with access to the outdoors, abundant natural light, and an environment surrounded by natural materials.
The design redefines the office experience, offering a uniquely elevated work environment in Seattle. Amenities are thoughtfully distributed across upper, lower, and mid-levels, complemented by integrated landscaping to enhance comfort and usability. Nearly every floor provides access to outdoor spaces, while warm timber elements and flexible, open floor plans create inviting and adaptable workspaces. The layout prioritizes daylight access and frames sweeping views, combining efficiency with a strong connection to nature.
Showpony
Amenity spaces, designed to foster community and collaboration, are concentrated in the lower half of the building. These areas will connect directly to 901 Lenora and feature expansive doubleheight spaces that extend onto outdoor terraces. The upper portion of the building will offer open, light-filled office spaces.
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[ LMN VIZ TEAM ]
DALLAS CONVENTION CENTER EXPANSION (COMPETITION ENTRY)
The Next Generation Mega-Convention Center In Texas
LMN Architects, 2024 Summer, Competition
Location: 650 S Griffin St, Dallas, TX
Responsibility: conducted plan efficiency and spatial accessibility studies; development of alternative design options; created analytical diagrams for presentations.
Each design study strives to balance the future of Downtown Dallas AND the set the standard for what it means to be a next generation mega-convention center. Working closely with you throughout the design process, we expect to continuously evaluate and refine ideas in this manner to maximize the opportunity and leave no stone unturned. The observatory concept makes an iconic city-scale gesture to the neighboring districts influenced by the confluence of street grids, views and open spaces. The two masses at the ballroom level open onto a central green roof and terrace, which opens to the east to connect with a new plaza on the co-development site across Lamar.
Ballrooms orientated in all cardinal directions allow views to the city and orientation to the Dallas skyline. Above the exhibit halls, a large, interconnected roof terrace and garden provides a community amenity and breakout space for convention-goers, with ample access to daylight, views and fresh air. The adjacent ballrooms gaze out to the neighboring districts with framed "windows to the city." Retail spaces at multiple scales distributed around the entries help create a continuous band of activity along Lamar St, mirroring the pattern of smaller city blocks.
1. Contiguous 800,000 SF Exhibit Hall reusing Hall F
2. Covered entry with enhanced public realm off Lamar
3. "Breadcrumb" trail of retail spaces
4. Cascading terraces stepping down to Lamar
5. Lamar Street multimodal corridor
6. Shade trellis providing passive solar cooling
1. Double-height lobbies activate street edge
2. "Windows to the City" - Ballrooms with iconic views
3. Large events terrace and green space
4. Elevated Exhibit Hall with daylight and views
5. Lamar Street multimodal corridor
6. Distributed retail spaces
1. "Civic Porch" - Covered event space with generous public circulation
2. Neighborhood retail and co-development
3. Double-height stacked exhibit hall with daylight and views
4. Ballroom with access to terrace and fresh air
5. Lamar Street multimodal corridor
Section Diagram of the Civic Porch
Section Diagram of the Urban Observatory
Section Diagram of the Lamar Connector
06
REVERSIBLE HETEROTOPIA
Recreating Otherness in Migrants’ Housing
San Francisco, CA
UC Berkeley, 2022 Spring, Master of Architecture Thesis
Instructor: James Leng & Maria Paz Gutierrez
2022 Sooky Lee Prize for Housing & Social Architecture
Since the 17th Century, Architecture has been obsessed with specialized circulation. Prior to this moment, circulation was indistinguishable from the spaces from residence, dining, and work. The extraction of circulation from programmatic space began to produce ideas of privacy, solitude, and exclusion of otherness, and gradually people became voluntary prisoners living in cells connected by corridors.
Immigrants however, are a unique demographic with the potential to resist this spatial structure. When immigrants arrive to a new city, their willingness to gather and socialize, and their need for opportunities of learning and connection requires an architecture to recreate and allow otherness in space.
This thesis attempts to create a new spatial organization for residential buildings by studying otherness in space, and more specifically, by creating a reversible circulation and living space to blur the boundaries between them.
Villa Capra, 1567, Andrea Palladio
Panopticon, 1791, Jeremy Bentham
Although the occupants of residential buildings and prisons are vastly different, there is a high degree of similarity in the organization of their spaces. Both of them are cells connected by corridors. Before Cell and Corridor were invented as specific space types, the rooms are connected in a matrix style. People live together and celebrate the otherness in their daily lives.
Reverse | By constantly reversing the positions and shapes of rooms and corridors, residents' perception of whether a space is private or public is no longer constrained by the physical layout.
Reversed Typical Floor B Plan
Normally, squares are perceived as enclosed rooms. However, when the relationship between the figure and the background is reversed, the crosses within the square can also be perceived as enclosed spaces, while the square area itself can be repurposed as circulation space.
Private and Public Life in Trapezoidal Space
Both the trapezoidal and crossing spaces have the potential to serve as versatile private and public areas, allowing for a wide range of functions.
Blur | Combining different spatial organization methods blurs the boundaries between private and public spaces. This blurring fosters greater interaction and intimacy.
Hybrid of Original and Reversed Typical Floor B Plan
In this floor plan, we can expect a new way of living: to participate in others’ lives as much as possible while respecting necessary privacy. People gradually accept each other’s way of life in a progressive way, and their living relationships become more closely knit.
Private and Public Life in Crossing Space
In addition to residential, it can be repurposed into a multifunctional public space, such as a communal kitchen, or a cozy coffee shop, providing a versatile environment.
Section
Between adjacent floors, the relationship between the corridor and the viewing gallery and the relationship between the living space and the circulation are constantly reversed. In section, this alternation of positions is reflected.
This alternation makes the building facade uneven. To solve this problem, an outer layer was added inside.
Balcony of Two Floors
The space Between the outer facade and the inner layer is the balcony. Each balcony space can connect residents Live in two adjacent floors, creating a social balcony that is not common in ordinary residential buildings.
Big Cavity
In order to allow residents to interact more closely, the plan is relatively dense, which may also cause difficulties in lighting. Therefore, adding a larger cavity to the building not only provides an open space, but also enables the light wells on the lower floors to introduce more light into the building.
Elevation
The elevation of the building provides a perceptible sense of the shifted grid in the plan. The external facade adopts a regular grid pattern similar to that of a matrix plan.
View
In terms of height, this project represents the penetration of high-rise buildings into low-rise communities. In terms of function, it represents Chinatown's foray into the realm of skyscrapers. Serving as a crucial node that stitches together two areas, this project enriches the city's skyline.
Single staircase designs, on the other hand, do not require a central hallway, allowing units to wrap around the staircase and provide windows on multiple sides. This Alexibility facilitates the creation of larger, multi-bedroom apartments that are more suitable for families.
Additionally, having windows on multiple sides enhances natural ventilation and cooling, contributing to a healthier living environment.
This project is a reimagination of egress stairs. Rather than treating them as enclosed, isolated spaces, we see them as opportunities of openess and connection. Each stair landing connects directly to a semi-private courtyard belonging to the adjacent unit, fostering community and encouraging casual encounters among neighbors — much like traditional single-family neighborhoods. The compact stairwell minimizes egress distances and enables the building to fit into small urban lots. By incorporating a modular and compact utility core, this typology can easily adapt to various lot sizes and accommodate diverse family needs.
This project places outdoor spaces at the forefront, instead of a private balcony, ensuring engagement with the environment while fostering neighborly connections. The internal views of adjacent units from stairway allows for a sense of community to develop between residents.
View From Stair Landing Towards Courtyard
[ Xueer Ma ]
4 Units Floor Plan
2 Units Floor Plan (Wide)
The most infrastructure-intensive functions of daily life are consolidated into a Mech Core, which can be pre-fabricated off-site and transported to the site.
In a 2B2B unit formed by combining two 1B1B units, the extra kitchen area can be repurposed as storage space.
1B1B Unit
2B2B Unit
[ Xueer Ma ]
[ Xueer Ma ]
Section
The elevation difference between the east and west building units enhances privacy while creating a semi-underground garage. Vehicles enter from Ogden Street, accessing residences via the stair/elevator core, while non-driving residents enter from Emerson Street.
Emerson St
Families at Night
This approach bridges the gap between single-family homes and large apartment complexes by offering a compact, community-focused alternative that balances density with a strong sense of connection and livability.
08 PORTOLA GREENHOUSE
Tourist and Community Center of Protola District
770 Woolsey St, San Francisco, California
UC Berkeley, CED, 2021 Fall, Integrated Design Studio
Instructor: Dan Spiegel
Group Work, Teammate: Jinghong Sun
In the most direct sense, a greenhouse is a simple, vernacular structure, composed of an expressed structural frame and enclosed by a translucent envelope for the purpose of cultivating agriculture. But more to the point, greenhouses are about producing environments. The University Mound Nursery greenhouse on the block of 770 Woolsey in San Francisco is the last of greenhouses in Bay area. The Portola neighborhood - now officially recognized as The Garden District - was once home to 19 different family owned nurseries, growing roses, ferns, and other flowers, originally and predominantly tended by immigrants from Jewish, Maltese, and Italian communities, and sold at the SF Flower Market. The final greenhouse ceased production in 1990 and has remained vacant ever since. Left alone, the constructed thresholds recede while tangles of plants continue to grow, even ascend. And though the structures themselves have become less organized, the communities they once enabled still persist.
This project reimagines the last greenhouse as it fades into its ecosystem, neighborhood, and entropy—gaining presence in discussions on context, identity, and urban ecology. Inspired by current proposals, we will design an Urban Tourist Community Center, redefining a declining typology with resilient strategies to integrate seamlessly, even entirely, into its surroundings.
Site Plan
Various parts are interspersed through sky walking. At the end of it is a landscape tower, on which people can look back at the passing road and appreciate the landscape of the whole block.
Plants Archive
Here it is a space for displaying various plants. There is an indoor greenhouse and many plant incubators.
Ground Floor Plan
Second Floor Plan
On this steep site, ramps enhance accessibility. The entrance features a sunken square leading to a skywalk or exterior landscape. Inside, visitors arrive at the center, drawn to the indoor greenhouse and plaza. The third section serves the neighborhood, with direct access to the plants archive at second-floor height. Continuing on, vistors reach the education hub, then the library and landscape tower, which is also accessible via the skywalk.
Skylight over the Plants Achrive
Skylight near the Tower
South Elevation
The whole building lies
The roof height on the south side of the project allows people to enter the interior from the corner garden directly. People walking around can feel the very crispy and thin roof edge.
Details
Underground air distribution system to condition the air in the archive space. The underground ducts supply conditioned air and the small ducts in the wall supply air for the higher space.
Thin End
09
INDIGENOUS ANCHOR
New California Indigenous Heritage Center
West Sacramento, CA
UC Berkeley, CED, 2021 Spring, Graduate Option Studio
Instructor: Maria Paz Gutierrez & Peter Suen
Individual Work
In 2019, the City of West Sacramento transferred a 43-acre parcel to California State Parks for the new California Indigenous Heritage Center (CIHN). Set to create a place representing and celebrating all California Indian Cultures, the Center is also required to remain nameless, faceless, and neutral.
The recognition of the primarily overlooked relevance of the distinctive and varied indigenous notion of land stewardship, respect for natural systems, and their cycles is as much about the heritage of material culture and beliefs as it is about an ever-evolving dynamic process of reclamation of California ethos.
The perspectives on the past, present, and future of Indigenous cultures in the State are as diverse as divergent. Convergences and divergences define the land allocated for the California Indigenous Heritage Center. Set at the meeting point of two fundamentally distinct water bodies, the Sacramento and the American River, the 43-acre site is a riverbank zone subject to increasing pressures of Climate Change. The site has a long history of riverine flooding. This project addressed the historical material culture and material ecologies at the intersection of waterair-vegetation convergences and controversy, exploring potential future resilience and vulnerability in creating the new Center.
Conceptual Model
The main structure of the entire building is cross-laminate timber. All offices and storage rooms for tribal treasures have their independent air conditioning system. The windows of the building's curtain wall can be opened for natural ventilation.
Detail Section & Elevation
10 ON THE BORDER
Housing Renovation in Post-War Reconstruction
Saltivka, Kharkiv, Ukraine
2024 Summer, Kharkiv Housing Challenge
Individual Work
The site is in Saltivka, the most populated district in Kharkiv. Due to its proximity to Russia, it has suffered immeasurable damages and losses as a consequence of the conflict. The existing buildings were concrete panel houses, built by local industries in response to the necessity of providing accommodation for factory workers on a mass scale. The destruction of residential communities caused by previous wars led to a high demand for housing during the reconstruction period. Additionally, the technical issues associated with the concrete panel houses should also be addressed in this urban reconstruction process.
This project is an innovative modular system capable of retrofitting existing concrete panel housing blocks, re-erecting demolished ones, and enhancing public spaces, to create safe, energy-efficient, and vibrant neighbourhoods.
Reconfiguration
In the original layout, concrete panels were spaced 3600mm apart, with units spanning three bays. The new layout aligns with the structure and uses modular units for faster construction and easier future upgrades.
4th Floor Plan
On the lower floors, more small units are arranged. The centrally located servant box divides the basic residential unit into active and quiet zones—bedrooms are placed near the balcony, while living rooms are closer to the corridor.
9th Floor
On the higher floors, larger units are placed. units, layouts suitable for larger families can from those of the
Sectional Perspective
15th Floor Plan
By combining two or four basic residential can be created. The balcony angles are derived original building.
The connection areas serve as dining rooms or living rooms. Since the balconies are also off-site prefabricated elements, they can be merged or mirrored to create varied facade effects.
