By Jenna Bagcal
A Bayside architect was just honored with his eighth award from the Queens Chamber of Commerce last Thursday.
Tim Hao was awarded the Excellent Design Award for rehabilitation, re-adaptive use, alteration or addition to a Bayside home at the 2018 Annual Building Awards Gala.
According to Hao, he was one of 14 architects awarded out of 90 entries for this year’s competition, which took place at Terrace on the Park.
Construction on the winning property was completed in December 2017 and took a full year — four months for the design process and eight months for construction. Hao teamed up with builder and property owner Alex Zhao for the project.
“I feel great for the recognition of first place award winner, I tried my best in architectural design to improve the appearance of buildings I designed and to work toward bettering and beautifying Queens,” Hao said. “Architecture is the landmark or symbol of a city and represents the specific cultural ethos. Appearance is vital, I tried to provide designs that create uplifting spaces for people’s daily lives.”
Last year, Hao won first place for his work designing a mini-mansion in Little Neck. He has been recognized by the chamber of commerce for his designs since 2011.
The 34-year veteran architect became interested in design as a child growing up in China and studied it extensively while in school. He received a degree in civil engineering at Qingdao University of Technology, studied architecture at Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology Interior design and also studied urban planning at Southeast University in China.
His goal when designing a new project is to make use of the existing structure in order to create environmentally friendly designs and lower construction costs. Hao shared that he gains inspiration for each project by visiting each site and taking in the surrounding area.
“I got [ideas] and inspiration for design a contemporary house when I take a site visit for surroundings,” Hao said. “I saw many contemporary buildings, from a temple and campus of Queens Community College nearby. This house should be a nice addition for the beautiful campus.”
Currently, the architect is working on “many projects” which include residential houses, interior design projects and mixed-use buildings around New York City.
