Founded in 2018 by James Leng and Jennifer Ly, Figure is a San Francisco–based architecture studio. Quietly radical, our award-winning designs express subtlety and generosity across residential, multifamily housing, commercial, and cultural projects.
The studio is driven by a continuous sense of inquiry. Figure works closely with individual clients and stakeholders to uncover the desires, latent histories, and shared narratives embedded within a site. This process yields bespoke architectural responses—pragmatic and efficient, yet rich with delight and meaning.
We value resourcefulness and collaboration, building longstanding relationships with the makers who craft our designs. Leng and Ly’s strong connection to AAPI communities in California instills the studio with a sense of identity and civic responsibility.
Figure is a minority-owned firm and a registered San Francisco Local Business Enterprise (LBE).
James Leng is a registered architect and founding principal of Figure. Blending conceptual and research-driven design, he believes in creating architecture that is responsive to people, neighborhoods, and natural environments. Leng’s broad national and international professional experience is foundational to the studio’s cultural, multifamily residential, and urban-scale projects.
His designs and writings bring attention to the nuance and history of a place—a methodology honed as recipient of the SOM Traveling Fellowship, in which he traveled across China and the Asia-Pacific region. Leng’s research was awarded the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise for immigrant contribution to the arts. He is a MacDowell Fellow, a contributor to Reimagining Chinatown 2050 (Mawenzi House Publishers, 2023), and a participant in the 2025 Venice Architectural Biennale.
Leng is faculty at University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Architecture, where he develops and shares his evolving approach to architecture, urbanism, and landscape. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley.
Jennifer Ly is a registered architect and founding principal of Figure. Informed by two decades of experience on high-profile commissions across California, New York, and China, her work spans cultural, community and healthcare, and commercial projects, with an emphasis on public benefit, collaborative process, and constructability at all Scales.
Prior to founding the studio, Ly worked on Apple Park at Foster + Partners and the Studio Museum in Harlem at Adjaye Associates. Her belief in architecture and art as catalysts for community impact is shaped by both professional practice and research into the material and social life of architecture. As a Rotch Travelling Scholar, she studied museums worldwide, documenting strategies for expanding access to spaces and collections.
Ly is the recipient of the Harvard’s Faculty Design Award and the Alpha Rho Chi Medal. Her work has been published in The Architectural Review, Log, and Cornell Journal of Architecture, and she was a participant in the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. She has taught at the University of California, Berkeley, California College of the Arts, and Harvard University. Ly holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a member of the Asian American Pacific Islander Design Alliance.
Current Team: Vincent Yee Foo Lai, Leander Brotz, and Mara Diavolova
Former Team: Cing Lu, Despoina Papadopoulou, Miles Cornwall, Alexandra Huerta, Yasmine Kahsai, Manon Eylenbosch, Guillermo Mendoza, Douglas Lee, Grant Fisher, Maple Lin, John Sita, Annie Xuan, Reishan McIntosh, Oliver Moldow, Tiger Fu, Bryan Huang, Sonja Cheng
Portrait by Natasha Sadikin