About Us

At Yihong Liu + Associates our working method has always been highly intuitive and flexible – there are no rigid boundaries or pre-set formulas. Our interest is in producing meaningful work that is rooted in its context, both cultural and physical. We have developed a design process that focuses on the unique values of each client and the specific programmatic requirements and aesthetic opportunities of each project. We understand that the role of the architect is one often marked by conflict, contradiction, and change as projects evolve and respond to stakeholders’ needs. Together with the stakeholders, we begin by exploring both the functional needs and the aesthetic goals of each project with no limiting preconceptions. This ensures that the final design emerges from the specific context and essential function of the project. Our ability to understand and interpret user needs and goals is evidenced in the positive relationships we have developed with our clients. We encourage you to contact any of our past clients, to better understand our methods and abilities.

At Yihong Liu + Associates, each project is approached as the continuation of an ongoing inquiry. We have become specialists in finding creative and unique solutions to the most difficult budgets and programs. Careful consideration is given to the appropriateness of design choices in terms of context, program and construction. We are known as architects who link exceptional design with time and budget concerns, joined with a larger commitment to community and quality.

Our work is driven by the belief that architecture can have a transformative influence by providing an environment that engenders freedom of thought, creativity and curiosity; and as such, we believe in the possibility of creating architecture that itself becomes an instrument of the human experience. It is from these beliefs and values that we continually strive to deliver buildings that redefine the typology and establish new paradigms for each project we undertake. While we practice architecture with an extremely rigorous and exacting methodology, we remain open-minded, so that our work can adapt throughout the dynamic process of making places for people.

In our eyes, the quality of a project is not necessarily related to how much it costs, but rather how wisely the resources of time and money are spent. We firmly believe that design excellence can be achieved on any scale or budget; that economy and aesthetics are not mutually exclusive. Proper cost management and life cycle building cost is of great importance to us. Our design strategy is to seek simplicity, which results in flexibility in use and economy in cost. In everything we do, we are constantly aware of our responsibility to our clients, who rely on us to honor our commitments to budget, schedule, and quality of work. Research of materials and technologies has lead us to new and innovative solutions while respecting tried and tested construction methods. This is true regardless of the scale, whether big or small, for public or private use, for rich or poor. Working closely with clients, users, industry and a network of consultants is an approach that has often led us to successfully reinvent established building types. Our attitude not only stresses the search for fundamental principles in architecture, such as light, volume and spatial flow, but also attempts to reveal extraordinary beauty within ordinary ideas and materials.

At Yihong Liu + Associates, our design process particularly emphasizes the unique requirements and aesthetic opportunities of each project. From this perspective, the contextual issues of a given site often provide great opportunity to develop an architectural language that is layered and multivalent. We see a site’s unique considerations as highly valuable, providing rich and diverse material to draw upon. The specific conditions of the multiple physical and cultural forces impacting the building—its embedment in the surrounding urban fabric, relationship to adjacent buildings, and proximity to community assets—help us develop a solution that contributes a distinctive sensibility to the environment.

As the design process begins, we focus on the unique attributes of and opportunities afforded by the site. We begin with an investigation of the site, surrounding buildings, existing building and structural system, attitudes and patterns of use, topographical surroundings, etc. While the programmatic aspects of the project are being defined, our designers begin their investigation of contextual issues, on both a micro and a macro level. These subjective contextual readings are balanced by combining the perspective of the “indigenous” client group and the “outsider” perspective of Yihong Liu + Associates and our assembled team of consultants.

As a service-oriented organization that has worked for numerous private and institutional clients whose priorities tend to emphasize low initial cost and long term value, we have learned how to deliver project excellence at a minimum price. Yihong Liu + Associates is accustomed to working on private projects which have rigid time and budget requirements and allow very little room for error. Our success at working under these conditions is reinforced by the statistic that nearly all of our projects that reach the construction design drawing stage have been built, on-time and on-budget. We can consistently deliver these kind of impressive statistics because our design and engineering approach minimizes complex and possibly expensive or time-consuming structural elements, in favor of a simplified, direct approach which results in more flexibility at the building stage, fewer problems, and ultimately lower costs. In addition, our consistent record of delivering innovative and effective design solutions, while strictly adhering to time and budget requirements, has resulted in a high percentage of repeat clients, who frequently return to us for further services and additional projects.

We believe that architecture cannot escape an active engagement in the issues and conditions of our contemporary society. We cannot stand apart from social, ethical, cultural, technical, or ecological issues, because it is only by facing them that we may find a significant subject for our work. Thus, every project we undertake has an important symbolic role to play in public life. The success of a design is measured by the degree to which it responds to the community, to the building’s users, and to the citizens of its city. It will be judged by its presence and by its ability to create a dialogue between building, user, and surroundings.

Yihong Liu + Associates was established in 2007 and has grown steadily to comprise 8 dedicated design professionals with studios located in Henderson, Nevada.