We have detected that you do not have the appropriate flash plugin installed to view our site as intended. Please click here to install the latest flash pugin from Macromedia.

ABOUT GYA

Dedicated to excellence in design, GYA Architects is a minority-owned architectural firm in Philadelphia. GYA Architects is comprised of a team of highly dedicated professionals under the leadership of George Yu and Lotus Leong. Founded in 1980, the firm has been successfully serving private, business, religious and educational clients.

GYA believes architecture is beyond the building – the product; rather, architecture is building – the process, by which the clients' needs are faithfully translated into a habitat of well being.

GYA provides a full range of architectural design services along with feasibility investigations, master planning, interior design and urban planning.

Commercial

West Goshen Shopping Center
West Goshen, Pennsylvania
This revitalized shopping center features a new canopy, sign band and colonnade with ornaments, depicting the three-dimensional Center logo.

Community Health Clinic
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Office building consists of six departments with private and open offices, reception and lounge areas, conference and meeting rooms. Third level administrative offices receive natural light through the pattern of windows, seen at interior walls.

555 City Line Avenue
Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania
This renovation included the renewal of exterior entrances, reconstruction of an interior water fountain, new elevator canopies, newsstand shop, and innovative pattern of brass logo-flooring insets, individually lit by pendant spotlights.

Doylestown Shopping Center
Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Mall renovation/ addition is a playful design, incorporating seating, awnings and a new identity to an existing nondescript facility. Colonnade design becomes the unifying architectural element, linking renovated buildings with new addition.

Exton Square Mall
Exton, Pennsylvania
As a playful invitation into the mall's food court and children's play area, the Carousel is in distinct contrast to the rest of the shopping area. Master Plan and store front planning guidelines were completed.

Greengate Mall Newstand
Greengate, Maryland,
The Rouse Company requested this kiosk, which is best seen looking down from the second level. The result is a compatibility with the overall mall architecture and a feeling of openness specific to the location, situated between the escalator and the established flow of retail traffic.

Hillary's Gourmet Ice Cream
The Mall in Columbia/ Columbia, Maryland
The kiosk is the first of the two planned for the Rouse Company's mall across from their Executive Headquarters. Its location in the midst of restaurant activity allowed for a 360 degree accessible retail space.

Residential

Private Residence
Society Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
In the midst of Philadelphia's historic Society Hill, the owners requested a contemporary, open townhouse design. Ample natural light was a necessity and was achieved through a skylit atrium, exposing all nine levels to daylight.

1900 Park Mall Residence Hall
Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The recently built 490 student residence hall provides an in-house computer center, fully equipped workout gym, convenience store and conversational lounges.

Private Residence
Queen Village, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Once four apartments, this townhouse was redesigned as a single family dwelling. Maximizing on natural light, interior walls were lowered and window seats designed.

Private Residence
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The turn-of-the-century building exterior was renovated according to the Philadelphia Historical Commission's Guidelines. The interior arrangement was designed according to owners' simple, elegant lifestyle.

Daylesford Abbey Residence
Paoli, Pennsylvania
Design gives residents the privacy necessary with individual rooms, balconies, and stepped curved façade; allowing priest two separate views upon the site's rolling green estate. Southern exposure shaded with metal sunscreen. Common facilities are laundries, lounges, library, mail room, and barber shop.

Private Residence
Main Line, Pennsylvania
The historic, charming three-level mill worker's house was preserved by wrapping the new glass architecture around the original structure. Two-storey vaulted living room overlooks outdoor pool, parkland and creek. Exercise/ lap pool room at lower level.

1300 Cecil B. Moore Residence Hall
Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The university's challenge to design a new dormitory for 1000 students with a residential atmosphere, on a tight time frame and budget was met. Included are student activity offices, lounges, fitness center, computer facilities room, book store, and café.

Educational

Stony Point Pavilion
Stony Point Conference and Retreat Center, Stony Point, New York
At the heart of the site, appears this open glass pavilion. For uses ranging from conferences to individual meditation, this multi-purpose facility compliments and is complimented by its surroundings.

Logan Hall Auditorium
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Auditorium renovation includes seating, stage, lighting and mechanical and audio-visual systems.

Shusterman Hall - Law School Conference Center
Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Historically certified building designed with smart classroom technology and the flexibility within the grand open space for international conferences and social events.

St. Peter's School
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The necessary expansion to this original turn-of-the-century school house was made financially possible by designing the new building as a flat-roofed-box and the façade to the scale of the respected historic building.

New Student Residence Hall
International Christian University, Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan
With an intimate sensitivity toward a campus rich with natural beauty within the dense Tokyo metropolis and a careful adherence to Japanese tradition, the University planned this new residence hall to embody and promote the ICU Liberal Arts education.

Religious

Brossman Center
The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, PA
The best location for the new learning center was at the site of the original 1888 Building, deemed structurally unsafe, yet shaped the campus quadrangle. GYA structurally restored the 1888 building's main façade and created an unobtrusive metal clad classroom/office building, as an architectural backdrop to the original building.

Daylesford Abbey Augustine Wing
Paoli, Pennsylvania
Soaring above a once-underused courtyard is the newly designed Great Hall, a place for conferences, social gatherings and worship. Alternating arches reveal natural light and enclosed mechanical systems, as seen at ceiling. Master planning allowed departments, formerly in outlying buildings, to function efficiently under one roof.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church
Newport News, Virginia
Built around a cluster of century-old crepe myrtle trees, the entrance loggia connects the church and school. The clerestory of indirect natural lighting accentuates the nave and softly highlights worshippers.

Holy Angels Church
Newark, Delaware
Master plan of the 21 acre site included design of worship assembly, education, administrative, gymnasium and social hall areas.

Westminster Presbyterian Church
Wilmington, Delaware
Project included new community hall addition and education, administration, worship assembly area renovations.

West Presbyterian Church
Wilmington, Delaware
Original spire and stained glass, salvaged from fire, were part of newly designed sanctuary, fellowship hall, offices, seminar and classrooms spaces. New sanctuary allows the flexibility to receive an intimate 50 or to expand to 400 seats.

Wayne Presbyterian Church
Wayne, Pennsylvania
The once open gap disconnecting the original chapel/education wing with the main sanctuary building became the new cloister entrance/reception hall addition. Master plan and renovations were completed.

Holy Redeemer Chapel
Holy Redeemer Health Systems, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
Formerly the hospital kitchen, this new chapel is located between the hospital and the senior living community. A meditation entrance garden was designed for staff, residents and visitors.

Saint Thomas of Villanova
Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania
A landmark in suburban Philadelphia, the building was renovated and restored by working closely with the university, campus ministry, and parish building committees to meet the university's new programs and the liturgy of the church.

Saint Stephen's Lutheran Church
Wilmington, Delaware
The chapel addition, entrance plaza and building renovations were designed to blend into the original architecture and improve upon the space available for church functions.

Saint Isaac Jogues Catholic Church
Marlton, New Jersey
Given the challenge of siting this new church building complex among the property's wetlands with expansive parking needs, the parish's new place of worship and an adjacent new school building was completed.

Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran Church
Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania
After finishing the master plan, the new church complex received a new worship assembly, parish hall, offices and classrooms as well as Youth Center renovations.

Saint Cornelius Church
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
Overlooking the Brandywine Valley, the three major liturgical spaces, an 800 seat assembly, daily mass chapel and cloister were designed in keeping with the parish's program, budget and schedule.

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church
Bear, Delaware
After decades of worshipping in a temporary structure, the parish required a permanent building for the growing membership attending church and school. Parishioners wanted an intimate, yet inspiring worship experience and a spiritual symbol for the community.

The Philadelphia Cathedral
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The purpose for renovating this historical place of worship is not just the preservation of a building's original elements; rather, it is a desire to rejuvenate this building's ability to inspire. Analogous to the refurbishing of an old musical instrument, renovation is not a process of preserving an antique for display, but a process of renewal in order to hear it sing as it did when it was new.
"To that end, the noble purpose of renovation is to bring back the "musical voice" of a building, as well as to offer a robust possibility of "music" to come.

© 2006 GYA Architects, Inc. ALl Rights Reserved. 1821 Ranstead Street. Philadelphia, PA 215.561.7032

Website Design and Development by: solutionmedia