He designed several of Kuala Lumpur's landmark buildings, such as: Chin Woo Stadium, UMNO building, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Federal Hotel, Kampung Baru Mosque, Ar-Rahman Mosque and the Masjid Al-Ubudiyah.
[3][4] In his early years, Lee traveled to England, Germany and Italy respectively for studies and earned a master's degree in Engineering.
He returned to Malaysia and founded his own company, Y. T. Lee & Co. His ancestors came from Nanhai County, Canton Province.
The physical and spiritual philosophy of Chin Woo was first introduced to Malaya in the 1920 and founded in Shanghai in the 1910s by Huo Yuan Jia (Master Fok Yuen-Kap).
The opening ceremony was officiated by Sir Mc Donald, the High Commissioner of Great Britain, witnessed by local leaders on 11 December 1953.
Lee to open the new $110,000 wing of the Methodist Boys School in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur.
[8] The rectangular four-story structure was built in 1955 to act as the headquarters for the UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) party.
An article written in 1971 presented Lee as an expert in hospitality design, and credited him with a total of four hotels, two of them in Bukit Bintang.
[9] Ar Azaiddy Abdullah writes that Lee worked with one of Kuala Lumpur's municipal architects, Eric Taylor, on the Merlin Hotel, 1957-1959.
The complex's layout on the prominent site was likened to the United Nations: a figural auditorium faces the traffic circle, and behind it lies the broad administrative block.
It can host up to 7,000 worshippers during the Muslim Friday prayer in the Malay village, Kampung Baru, that lies minutes away from the PETRONAS Towers.
The repetitive patterns for the fencing, the rounded arch windows, and the pointed arches between the columns in Masjid Al- Ubudiyah show a similarity between the design and materials used in the Masjid Jamek Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur.
Lee was hired, and prepared working drawings for a "mosque and madrasa" on "Malay Street" in 1963 and 1964.
The extent to which the existing Masjid India Mosque was designed by Lee is unclear, as it has clearly been renovated multiple times since the 1960s.
It was built at a cost of RM 1.73 million and began operating in 1966[16] as the second phase of the rural development expenditure for medical and health services.
[19] It was built to provide safe and comfortable accommodation for young girls and women from all parts of Malaysia.
[24] The 5 storey Bank and Office buildings can be found at lots 7-8 sec.48, Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur.
[25] Lee was one of the most important of a group of architects operating in the modernist idiom in Malaysia in the period after independence.
He was considered an expert in hotel design, deftly combining modernism with a local feel.