HiP > 2026 > People > HiP Architecture Rising Star

Photo: Chao Li

Selected as one of the 30 Best Architects Under 30 by Metropolis Magazine, Isabel Li is an architect with over five years of experience across New York, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. Currently an Architect at Snøhetta New York, where she has contributed to projects from concept through construction, including the UCSF Barbara and Gerson Bakar Research and Academic Building and 113 Spring Street in New York. In 2023, she was selected as part of the inaugural cohort of Metropolis Magazine’s Arch30, recognizing emerging leaders shaping the future of architecture in New York. Her advanced studio work at Yale School of Architecture received the H.I. Feldman Prize, the school’s highest design honor, awarded annually to one student or team for the best project of the year. Isabel Li holds a M.arch I from Yale School of Architecture and a BSc in Architecture with first class honors from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. She has led award-winning competition teams, including second prize in the Military Museum Competition (Young Architects Competition) and fourth prize in LA+ Exotique (University of Pennsylvania). Her work has been exhibited and published internationally, including the Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (UABB), and featured on GOOOOD and UP Magazine.