Shin-Yau is an architect, planner, and urban designer who always keeps the bigger picture in mind. Her goal is to create great spaces that respond to and shape neighborhood context, enhance surrounding environments, and improve the quality of life for residents and visitors. At SGA she draws on her extensive experience and technical expertise in master planning, programming, adaptive re-use, and mixed-use developments, in order to supervise projects and work with clients and teams on design, coordination, and collaboration. She contributes to thoughtful approaches, pays special attention to details, and strives for excellence.
Shin-Yau began her career at Beyer Blinder Belle in New York City, starting as an urban designer and rising to project architect over the course of 10 years. There she honed her expertise in master planning, urban design, mixed-use development, and multifamily housing projects. Subsequently she worked at ODA as a senior project architect specializing in multifamily housing. She continued to amass a portfolio in that sector at Cetra Ruddy, where she served as a project manager before joining SGA.
Originally from Taiwan, Shin-Yau came to the U.S. to study, earning a Master of City and Regional Planning and a Certificate of Urban Design from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design. Outside of the office she enjoys traveling (Venice, Copenhagen, and Helsinki are favorite destinations), sketching, visiting botanical gardens, practicing yoga, and cooking.