Community Highlights: Meet RD Chin of RD Chin, Feng Shui Architect

Today we’d like to introduce you to RD Chin.

Hi RD, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
How I got into Feng Shui

After my dad passed away in February 1990, my very close friend, Mitch, was dying of AIDS. I was his primary caretaker, watching this lethal disease drain the Qi life force from his body. I got fired from an architecture firm in Bay Ridge for reasons of taking too much time away from the office helping him; in reality, I felt that it was a combination of homophobia as well as jealousy that I got a lot of attention the night before at an opening of a woman’s clothes store, Emily’s in Staten Island which I designed as one of my first projects in the dominion of his office. Mitch died in April 1990.

As a result of two people I loved, I was highly recommended to see Stacey, a neighbor in my building, who could help me address my grief. She was one of Barbara Brennan’s first students who studied a system called “Hands of Light,” which combines hands-on healing techniques with spiritual and psychological processes. I went to Stacey once a month; interestingly, I consciously scheduled my sessions during the Full Moon, where I felt more open to new possibilities. During these sessions, I would cry or laugh when Stacey gently placed her hands on my shoulders or under my neck to release the dark shadows of anger, fear, and regret, bringing me into a state of peace and acceptance.

During these sessions, I had a revelation: “There is something more for me to do than architecture or interior design.” But I didn’t know what that was.

I was working freelance with a very competent interior designer, Nina Hughes, whose office was located on the trendy East 11th Street, alongside other designers, furniture boutiques, and fabric houses. Nina gave me this book titled Interior Design with Feng Shui by Sarah Rossbach, and I started reading it, sitting at the round Saarinen white-lacquer table with the mushroom base, having a tuna salad sandwich with my favorite bag of Lay’s potato chips, and Tazo green iced tea. Nina comes over to me, looks over my shoulder, and whispers to me:

Ron, I “feng shuied” this office.

Really!

Yes, Christine is sitting in the reception area known as the “helpful people” area, the library of books, marble, and tile catalogs, and furniture specs are located in the “knowledge” corner, and all our drafting desks are positioned in the “commanding position”! Please take this book and keep it…I think you will find it interesting.

Oh, thank you so much.

I continued reading this textbook of stories about how simple changes to one’s space can literally change one’s life. If I follow this octagonal diagram called the Ba Gua, it will be a wonderful guide to reveal areas of your life that need attention and balance. I was mesmerized by the concepts that seemed so simple, yet they produced amazing results!

Continuing onward…
2017 was the year of Survival – I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, which resulted in fractures in my lower spine, where I was in a clinical trial. All work stopped!
2018 to 2023 were the years of Recovery where I was in a wheelchair and hospital bed.
2024 was the year of Hope and Renewal, where I started doing presentations again.

Now in 2026, I feel grateful that I’ve regained my Qi ball of energy, where I can go up and down stairs to my beautiful third-floor office and teaching space in a townhouse owned by the Lithuanian Alliance of America across the street from where we live. I no longer need to use a cane or rollator. I feel strongly that Feng Shui was instrumental in my health journey. Here is a link to a blog: https://www.curetoday.com/view/fighting-multiple-myeloma-with-feng-shui

I now teach online Qigong every Saturday morning and monthly I-Ching sessions. I am excited to work on feng shui projects, which include affordable housing, offices, and urban planning. Please check out my website: rdchin.com

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Despite my health challenges, I feel blessed to have spent twelve years working alongside the late Paul Rudolph, one of the most celebrated architects of the twentieth century, known for his brutalist building projects and his uncompromising creative vision. Leaving his practice to pursue my own work in feng shui was its own kind of leap—a decision to trade the shelter of a great name for the exposure of my own. Writing Feng Shui Revealed brought a different kind of vulnerability, forcing me to reckon with questions of whether my voice deserved to be heard. The architectural and design world has long regarded feng shui with skepticism, dismissing it as mysticism rather than method. What I am really doing is helping people see the spaces they inhabit—and by extension, their lives—with fresh eyes. That is not always welcome in a competitive design field.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about RD Chin, Feng Shui Architect?
RD Chin is a Feng Shui architect/urban planning consultant. From 1981 to 1993,
RD served as both architect and office manager alongside the renowned late
master architect Paul Rudolph, working on major projects in Southeast Asia. He
holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Tufts University and a Master’s in
Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.
RD founded his design practice in 1991, after immersing himself in Feng Shui
under the guidance of masters from across China, Europe, and the United States.
Drawing on three and a half decades of experience, he blends Eastern Feng Shui
principles with modern Western aesthetics to create spaces that transform how
people live.
His portfolio includes Asian American for Equality (AAFE) housing developments: One Flushing, Beach Channel,
and Magnolia Gardens, as well as proposal contributions for RFP’s Flushing
Airport, Trinity Church, the 388 Hudson project, and the WTC Memorial
competition.
He is the author of Feng Shui Revealed (1998).

Any big plans?
Going forward, I hope to continue working on large-scale projects alongside teams who are open to integrating feng shui into the design process. Outside of that, I teach weekly qigong and host monthly I-Ching sessions. I am also at work on a memoir about my ancestral home—a diaolou, a type of fortified tower found in China and recognized by UNESCO.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rdchin.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rdchin53
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ronald.d.chin
• Other: https://substack.com/@rdchin

Image Credits
All image credits are RD Chin