Ying-yu Hung has 25 years of experience in planning, urban design, and landscape architecture for complex projects that balance environmental and development issues. In her two decades of practice, Ying-yu has employed her visionary design skills to transform derelict parcels into beautiful, active public spaces.

In her material choices and designs she integrates art, history, and direct feedback from communities, resulting in designs that are enchanting as much as they are practical. Through her work in park-poor areas of Southern California, she has delivered public spaces that not only express community values, but also serve as vehicles to improve public health, stimulate economic growth, and improve environmental sustainability.

Ying-yu’s motivation to serve the public through design can be attributed to her personal narrative of arriving in a new land and making a home. She leads public outreach events in multilingual environments, thoughtfully devising exercises from arts incorporation workshops to community garden planting days, to maximize inclusivity.

Ying-yu completed her design studies at the University of California, Berkeley, from which she graduated with honors from the architecture program, and at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she received a Master in Landscape Architecture degree. She is managing principal at SWA Group in Los Angeles. SWA Group’s work has been recognized with more than 800 design awards, including the prestigious ASLA Landscape Architecture Firm Award (2005).