Designed by an American architect who had practiced in the Far East, the Goon Shee Lee Associates Building represents one of Chinatown's earliest and most architecturally distinctive structures in a Chinese style. An elaborate pagoda roof, fabricated of copper to suggest tile, shelters the distinctive second-floor iron balcony. This “celestial balcony,” which put a restaurant above street level in the Chinese architectural tradition, can be found on several buildings in the neighborhood. Construction of this building established Tyler Street as the center of the Chinatown business community. To the right stands another row of houses from the early development of the neighborhood, constructed in 1843–1844.