NYC Residential Architect for Wellness-Focused Homes

Thoughtful architecture for custom homes, townhouses, and substantial residential renovations.

A Beautiful Home Should Feel Better to Live In.

Design your home around better light, everyday comfort, and the way your family actually lives.

Tong Dong Architects brings residential design and healthy-home principles together, considering layout, ventilation, moisture, materials, and building systems from the beginning.

Based in Queens, serving New York City, Long Island, and select Westchester locations.

Tell Us About Your Project

Explore Our Work

Planning a substantial residential project? Tell us about your property, priorities, and where you are in the process.

Bright NYC kitchen renovation with a waterfall-edge island, natural light, and a layout designed for cross-ventilation

Techbuilt house interior - Kitchen and waterfall edge kitchen island allowing cross ventilation

Designed Around How You Live

Light where you need it.

Plan rooms, openings, and circulation so daylight reaches the spaces your family uses.

Comfort beyond the thermostat.

Consider windows, insulation, shading, and building systems together.

Air and moisture considered early.

Address ventilation, exhaust, material choices, and moisture management while the design can still respond.

These decisions shape how your home feels every day—and many become difficult to change after construction.

See our approach

Portfolio

See What Thoughtful Design Can Change

A brighter interior. A more useful floor plan. A stronger connection to outdoor space.

Explore how architectural decisions shape the experience of a home.

NYC wellness home with solar tubes bringing natural light into the interior

Techbuilt House

A renovation shaped around natural light, openness, and the relationship between the home and its landscape.

Upper West Side Townhouse

A Manhattan townhouse renovation bringing together daylight, vertical circulation, outdoor space, and building-performance strategies within a landmark context.

Clients

Design for the Life Happening Inside

Make Space Work for Your Family

Create room for gathering, privacy, storage, work, and rest—with a layout that supports daily routines and changing needs.

Bring Light Where It Matters

Consider how windows, room placement, and interior connections can bring daylight deeper into your home while balancing privacy and glare.

Plan for Everyday Comfort

Look at ventilation, moisture, windows, insulation, and materials together, so the design considers how your home will feel as well as how it will look.

Find the Right Support for Your Project

Full-service architecture

Custom Homes

Design a home around your site, priorities, and the way you want to live—from the first architectural ideas through a clearly defined scope of services.

Tell Us About Your Custom Home

NYC Townhouse Renovations

Reconsider the whole home, connecting space planning, daylight, building systems, and outdoor areas with the realities of existing construction.

Explore Townhouse Renovations

Apartment, Co-op & Condo Renovations

Make better use of your space while coordinating architectural design with building requirements, approvals, and construction constraints.

Explore Apartment Renovations

Need Advice Before a Larger Commitment?

Buying or Renovating an Existing Home?

The Healthy Home Diagnostic Review looks at accessible, visible conditions involving ventilation, moisture, comfort, and daylight.

Receive written observations, priorities, and questions for further investigation.

$1,250 fixed fee. Includes intake, a 75–90-minute site visit, written findings, and a 30-minute follow-up.

This visual architectural review does not include environmental testing or replace a home inspection.

Explore the Diagnostic Review

Already Have Architectural Plans?

The Healthy Home Design Review provides an independent second opinion on your proposed design before important decisions become difficult to change.

Identify questions about layout, daylight, ventilation, comfort, and design coordination to discuss with your existing team.

Explore the Design Review

Wellness-Focused Renovations

Residential architecture that considers indoor air, moisture, thermal comfort, daylight, acoustics, materials, and long-term building performance from the beginning.

Discover wellness renovations

The Decisions That Matter Most Happen Early

Some design decisions are easy to change later.

Paint can be repainted. Furniture can be replaced. Hardware can be changed.

Other decisions become embedded in the architecture: floor plans, windows, structure, waterproofing, insulation, ventilation, mechanical systems, and the building envelope.

Those decisions deserve attention before construction begins.

That idea is the foundation of Build Without Regrets, our planning framework for homeowners preparing to renovate or build.

It helps you understand which decisions matter most, how they affect one another, and where early thinking can prevent expensive compromises later.

Explore Build Without Regrets

Work With Queenie Tong, RA, NCARB

Your home deserves careful design and clear conversations about the decisions ahead.

Queenie founded Tong Dong Architects following more than 18 years of architectural experience, including work at SOM, OMA, Gensler, and residential practices.

At TDA, that experience informs a personal approach to residential architecture—connecting design ambition, building performance, and the practical needs of family life.

Meet Queenie

A Clear Starting Point

1. Tell Us About Your Home

Share your property location, what you hope to change, and where you are in the process. You do not need to have every decision made.

2. Find the Right Scope

We review your priorities and discuss whether full-service architecture or a focused architectural review is the appropriate next step.

3. Understand the Engagement

Before services begin, we define the scope, responsibilities, fees, and next steps in a written proposal.

Questions Before You Get in Touch?

When should I contact an architect?

Reach out while you are considering the project, before the scope and major construction decisions are fixed. Early architectural input can help you understand options, constraints, and the work ahead.

Do I need a finalized budget?

No. Share your current expectations and any limits you already know. Budget and scope need to be discussed together; you do not need a finished cost plan to make an inquiry.

Can you help if I already have an architect?

Yes. Our Healthy Home Design Review provides an independent perspective on proposed plans. Your existing architect and consultants remain responsible for developing and implementing the design.

How are architectural fees determined?

Fees depend on the property, project complexity, scope, and level of involvement required. We define the proposed services and fees before work begins.

Let’s Talk About Your Home

What would you like to change—and what do you want your home to do better?

Tell us about your property, priorities, and project stage. We’ll review your inquiry and explain whether TDA is a suitable fit and what the next step would be.

Tell Us About Your Project

Still Exploring?

Start with the free Healthy Home Readiness Assessment.

Answer 15 questions about your priorities and planning approach, and receive suggested topics to explore before you renovate or build.

About three minutes. Free. Immediate results.

This questionnaire evaluates planning readiness, not your home’s physical condition.

Take the Free Assessment

Insights From TDA

Understand Your Home Before You Change It

Why is the top floor always hotter?
Why can an expensive renovation still feel dark?
What actually makes a wall perform well?
When should you hire an architect?

TDA Insights breaks down architecture, renovation, and building science in clear language so homeowners can make more informed decisions before they build.

Sunlit compact Manhattan apartment with high ceilings, large industrial-style windows, pale wood storage, and a clear open circulation path

Cramped to Calm: Smart Space Planning for Your NYC Apartment or Townhouse Renovation

New York City homes rarely feel short on character. They feel short on room. Whether you live in a pre-war apartment in Manhattan or a narrow Brooklyn townhouse, everyday life can quickly expose the weak points of a layout: coats collect by the door, toys migrate through every room, the kitchen blocks the main pathway, and the darkest part of the home becomes the place where everyone works, studies, and stores things. I’ve found that the answer is rarely “add more furniture.”

HEALTHY HOME

Sunlit high-end Manhattan apartment with floor-to-ceiling windows, natural wood, indoor planting, and a calm wellness-focused interior overlooking the New York City skyline

How to Integrate Climate-Responsive Design With Wellness Housing: 7 Moves NYC Developers Can Use in 2026

For NYC multifamily developers, wellness housing is becoming less about decorative amenities and more about measurable building performance. Residents may enjoy a rooftop lounge, fitness studio, or meditation room. But the daily experience of a home is shaped by quieter fundamentals: the air residents breathe, the temperature near the window, the sound from the neighboring unit, the materials beneath their hands, and how the building performs during heat, storms, and outages.