Michael Lin, 38

Michael Lin was born in Taiwan, and grew up there and in Australia, Singapore and the U.S., where he lived in California before going to college at Rice University in Texas. (His father was an executive at computer company Acer — hence the peripatetic upbringing.)

Lin would come to forge his fate in New York City, a decision the Gensler architect is quite comfortable having made. He began his career at KPF working on projects from all over before coming to focus more closely on Gotham. 

“The fact that I can work and design both buildings and spaces that are very much part of the fabric that I live in is very much something I wanted to do,” Lin said. 

The New York-centric work is on a grand scale. Projects in Lin’s CV now include Related Companies’ planned 52-story 625 Madison Avenue office tower, which Gensler is designing with Foster + Partners, and the Times Square offices of what Gensler describes as a “global financial services firm.” 

He’s expanding, too, into work in health care design for clients such as Catholic Health and NYU Langone. Lin is also working on 70 Hudson Yards, the 1.4 million-square-foot office tower that Related and Oxford Properties are building. He’s expanding, too, into health care design for clients such as Catholic Health and NYU Langone.

That last assignment allowed him to showcase a “neighborhood-based” workplace model. It’s one that prioritizes flexibility of both use and appearance. It was an approach that the pandemic-era office market — with its emphasis on hospitality-like amenities and flexible layouts — accentuated and rewarded.

“We completely redesigned the core because we saw a clear movement in the way that people worked,” Lin said.

New York’s City of Yes zoning overhaul also rewarded Gensler’s approach. Changes to how terraces were counted toward floor-area ratio allowed the firm to add square footage. The building’s energy efficiency specs, too, were so advanced that the more stringent rules in City of Yes didn’t really affect it. 

“In a way, we were ahead of the game, designing the best building possible without the code telling us to do so,” Lin said in an email. “I think 70 Hudson Yards is becoming a case study of how to design the best office building for the future.”