Ying moved to Charlottesville in 2019 from China. She grew up in an old town surrounded by mountains and rivers, leading her to develop a nature-loving and friendly personality. Ying is always a delightful presence in the office, where she contributed to a joyful atmosphere (she especially loves office visits from everyone’s dogs).

While skeptical of personality tests, Ying’s chosen career path was endorsed when she took a Meyers Briggs test that identified her as “the architect personality” (INTJ) shortly after selecting her major.

Ying’s approach to her work is as joyful as her personality: she sees the many ways architecture and buildings can be perceived or experienced: they can be “living creatures” which have their own functional system with humans running it; she can see the supporting structure as the skeleton of the building while rooms are organs and muscles. Buildings can also be stages where different scenes and stories can happen. Those fantastical views also give her multiple ways of designing a project: sometimes she imagines herself becoming the building with a steel-framed skeleton and glazing skin; sometimes she imagines herself to be the film director who sees clients staging productions in the building she’s working on. 

During school, Ying was focusing on theoretical and conceptual designs and was fascinated with graphic representation and narratives. She spent seven years building her macroscopical understanding before joining BRW in the Summer of 2021, where she dove into the functional details and building systems of architecture. Now three years in, Ying is a valued member of our production team while she pursues her path to licensure.