Construction-Focused
Thirty75 Tech // The Wild Beast at CalArts // Lago Vista Residential Addition // Point Restaurant // SooHoo-Lau Wedding Altar
Yeh Design Lab, as a consulting studio, has taken on a number of projects that involved either the entire construction process or the construction of a critical feature of the project. Our forte includes ensuring design intents are correctly interpreted and executed, solving technical problems as they arise in the field, getting actively involved in shop drawings and construction means and methods, coordinating and sequencing trades, acting as a liaison between the construction team and city officials, reviewing and negotiating contracts on clients’ behalf, soliciting and qualifying subcontractors and sub-consultants, and helping clients to navigate through liability-prone situations.
Our experience grew from years of self-performing work and training in architectural offices. As a grad student, Yi-Hsiu Yeh helped run the Making and Meaning summer program two years in a row, interned at Liz Matthews, worked at SCI-Arc woodshop, and worked for NonChi Wang at Amphibian Arc (most renowned for Beijing Planetarium as featured in the Beijing Olympic propaganda video during the games) during her time at SCI-Arc.
Upon her graduation, having finished the Soohoo-Lau Wedding Altar, she was offered the assistant shopmaster position by Randall Wilson, the shopmaster at the time. Instead, she chose to join Eric Owen Moss Architects (EMO), whose office challenges conventional design and construction approaches. At EOM, she completed a slopping glass project behind Stealth, obtained a height variance for the (W)rapper, and was part of the two-and-a-half-man team that obtained the first building permit for the “Pterodactyl”, an office building atop a parking garage that was eventually constructed by EOM team ten years later.
She construction-administrated most of her projects at CO Architects and got a recommendation from Mortenson Construction to interview at DPR. Both GC firms were counterparts of her projects at CO Architects: UCSD Shiley Eye Center Surgery Floor Expansion and the University of Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson.
In 2000, MOD 3×4 won the first Interior Design Magazine Furniture Design Award. The magazine featured the shelving system at the Neocon Chicago, where Yeh Design Lab connected with the Canadian furniture manufacturer Teknion and the Los Angeles-based firm Build by Design. As interest in MOD 3×4 grew, Yeh Design Lab set out to find a fabricator/partner to bring MOD 3×4 to the market. One of the fabricators solicited was Hinerfield-Ward Construction (HWI), a general contractor known for working with notable LA architects such as Ray Kappe, Pugh+Scarpa (now Brooks+Scarpa), and Neil Denari. Two years later, Yi-Hsiu Yeh joined HWI as a Senior Project Manager, where her final project before transitioning to teaching was the tenant improvement for the Los Angeles headquarters of British engineering firm Buro Happold, designed by Paul Tang Architecture, the precursor to Verse Design LA. In 2016, Paul Tang invited Yi-Hsiu to lead the construction administration of Thirty-75 Tech after she brought him to her students’ final review. In 2007, her last project with HWI before going on to teaching was the tenant improvement for the Los Angeles headquarters of the British engineering firm Buro Happold. The project was designed by Paul Tang Architecture, the precursor of Verse Design LA. In 2016, Yi-Hsiu Yeh invited Paul Tang to her students’ final review and was later asked to lead the construction administration of Thirty-75 Tech.
At Yeh Design Lab, we believe design and construction are inseparable, and our journey of weaving through various parts of the building industry has made us a better architect and consultant. In addition, we believe every professional relationship, even those with tensions, is valuable. We cherish opportunities for growth and embrace shifts in perspective that help forge our contribution in the industry.