Interviewed by Katie Donahue, Senior Associate at Handel Architects.

Hi, Honyi! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? What’s your backstory, what are your passions or hobbies?

Well, I am an immigrant from Taiwan. I lived there until I finished my undergraduate degree, and then I came here to the States for graduate school. I didn’t know that I would end up staying here, but I have now lived in the US longer than I lived in Taiwan. I sometimes wonder whether I can call myself Taiwanese anymore. I joined Handel Architects in 2006. It’s been a long journey, but also a really fun time with great people around me.

A little bit about a passion of mine: I have always enjoyed model building and actually I am still doing it today and recently joined a local hobby group in New Jersey. I’ve been entering competitions lately.

Are these architecture models? Or what kind of models do you make?

I think there’s always a relationship to architecture in the models I make. But mostly I build military models, usually airplanes. I won second place for a model I built last year. It starts with a bit of research and fact-checking to learn about the history and what the plane should look like. And then there’s lot of technique involved in building, including creating camouflage patterns, air brushing, and photography. The planes must look realistic, so I created a photo booth to shoot them in.

That seems similar to making architecture scale models. What other things do you do for fun?

I love to do home renovation projects, though the older I get, the more labor intensive they seem. I also love to cook. For me, it’s kind of like a science project, but one that allows for artistic license. It’s a fun, relaxing thing to do that feels creative but outside of the architectural world.

How did you become a part of the architecture world? What made you pursue it?

When I was younger and in school, I enjoyed arts and craft class, and would always get picked by the teacher to represent our school or class on art competitions. By high school, I realized I loved craft class and welding and making things. At the time, however, I was very encouraged to study engineering. But I noticed that what I enjoyed most were objects where the engineering was hidden, invisible. That helped me focus on what I really wanted to do – and that was architecture.

Do you have influences, people inside or outside of architecture, that inspire your design work?

I think as I get older, I find just about anything around me can influence my work. More and more it is art or a certain artist’s approach. And early on, my professors influenced me immensely. Most of them were masters of architecture that were never taught by other masters. I feel very fortunate to be taught by these types of architects because they did it on their own in their own way and encouraged me to think differently.

Lebbeus Woods was my studio director at Columbia, and back then my English wasn’t so good, but he was very patient. He always encouraged me, and he taught me not to worry too much and instead to believe in myself. “You’re on the right path, just keep going, just keep pushing,” were his words. Sometimes I’d wonder if he was actually listening to me or just nodding. But when I was asked to defend my work in my final review and my mind went blank, Lebbeus Woods got up and presented the reasons for my project. And then he invited me to come up and explain the rest. And I thought, “Oh my God! All this time I thought he wasn’t listening. But he was.” And he defended that I had come very far. He influenced me quite a lot, and helped set my attitudes toward the work we do and how we communicate with other people.

That is such an incredible story, Honyi, I didn’t know you studied under Lebbeus Woods. His work and ways of thinking about architecture to better society, how walls could bring people together instead of separating them for example, were really impactful to me as a student too. Can you tell us how eventually you made your way to Handel Architects?

I had been with my previous office for 11 years and was actively looking to get out. I interviewed here but didn’t get the job so I went to work for a different firm. And then in 2006 I heard from Principal Antonio Donofrio, and he invited me for another interview. This time I got the job right away and started right away.

I’ve seen so many offices where there are politics and hierarchies and invisible power struggles. I find that at Handel Architects all of that is kept to a minimum and we all are really focused on creating great architecture that we love. That makes everything a lot easier. There are times that I work late or work hard but I feel I’m doing what I want and what I love. The people here are not trying to outshine one another. Everyone works together.

The other thing that I really love is the studio review approach to design. Everyone is encouraged to be a part of the discussion, and good ideas are valued wherever they come from. It doesn’t have to be from the Partners or the Principals. One story I love is from working on Enclave at the Cathedral. One of my team members was working in the model shop on a model with an undulating façade that tapered on top because of a sky exposure plane restriction in the zoning. And someone else, not working on the job, came walking through, Principal Malay Shah. And Malay mentioned it would be really cool if the building was just turned upside down. He brought the idea to me and then I brought it to Partners Frank Fusaro and Gary Handel, and they all agreed that this was a good idea. We had to just prove what impact this would have on the square footage, so we did the calculations. Finally, we brought it to the client and they loved it, so that became the new design. And the idea came from someone who had nothing to do with the job. I think that sort of sums up what I love about the company. That there is this open forum for design and a shared discussion across everyone in this office.

I’ve seen examples of this, too. I love that everyone is always pinning up to share and mark up and discuss work. I’ve seen someone pass by a project drawing pinned up that is not theirs, have some idea or comment or question and start turning around asking whose project it is and engaging in dialog. That’s true collaboration. Can you tell us what projects you're currently working on?

The two projects that I'm working on right now are both with a North Carolina developer, Grubb Properties. Actually, these are their first projects in the Northeast. One – Queens Plaza North (Link Apartments) - is more than halfway through construction. It’s a building directly north of the Queensborough MTA station, with a bridge from the station straight into the property. Because the MTA station was not handicap accessible, we had to make it accessible with an elevator and better connection to the street, which was an interesting process. There’s ground floor retail and the rest is multifamily residential rental. It’s been fascinating working with this developer because they have some different regional standards. They tend to prefer smaller units and to maximize every square inch, for example, and they love a U-shaped kitchen, which we don't often do.

Right, in Manhattan and a lot of places, a bar kitchen with a floating island is more common than a U-shape with a peninsula, for an open flow.

Yes. But they feel it’s an important gathering place, and we've found this works well in the larger units. In compact units, we've created a bar kitchen, which allows us to create space for a walk-in-closet and a bathroom outside of the bedroom.

The other project for them is 8 Carlisle, a residential tower right here in Manhattan's Financial District, just a couple of blocks away from our office. It’s 63-story point tower with a very small footprint and smaller units that we are working to maximize. It will also include retail space on ground and second floors.

Can you tell us about some of the architecture-adjacent activities you’re involved with?

Outside of projects, I’ve been involved with the Community Outreach Whiteboard Group. We’ve worked with the ACE mentorship program that helps under-resourced and under-represented students explore and pursue careers in the design and construction industry. Usually these are high school students who want to pursue a professional degree, so we help by teaching them about the business of architecture, preparing portfolios and resumes, practicing the interview process and things like that. We also like to make clear that there are many different routes, only one of which is a traditional undergraduate degree in architecture. We help them focus on what to do and how to search for jobs and how to know what opportunities are out there. And, as a matter of fact, a student that we helped for the last two years actually went through our interview process and was just selected to be an intern here!

And then you recently told me about your involvement in NOMA, can you talk about that?

NOMA is the National Organization of Minority Architects. The Community Outreach group at the office decided to use the opportunity to work with the group for the first time this year. We had the first successful ACE program with them and hope to have a low-income housing lecture co-hosted with them as well. We want to find ways to work together to help young architects network and collaborate.

If you were to give one piece of advice to young people what would you say?

I think we all have a dream. You have to give yourself credit to believe that you are good enough to pursue your dreams, especially when people out there don't necessarily believe in your dream, or don't believe in you. You have to keep your head down and feel like you are on the path to your destiny. Put all your effort and focus into it. Find pleasure in the journey. I feel so fortunate to be a Principal in a well-known architecture firm, and I say to people, if I can do it, anyone else can do it. I'm an immigrant from Taiwan, I didn't speak the language, and people criticized me for being awkward, for having bad communication, when I was younger. But hey! One day I grew up. I became a Principal. I think that can be an inspiration to people.