CO Adaptive
{{Short description|Architecture design firm based in Brooklyn}}{{Peacock|date=May 2025}}
CO Adaptive is a design-build firm based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard founded by Ruth Mandl and Bobby Johnston. The firm started as an architecture studio in 2011 and expanded to provide construction services in 2021.{{Cite web |title=How can our existing building stock become energy-efficient and resilient? |url=https://frameweb.com/article/sustainability/how-can-our-existing-building-stock-become-energy-efficient-and-resilient |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=frameweb.com |language=en}} CO Adaptive's notable works include several passive-house design projects in Brooklyn. The design and passive house renovation of the founders' own home in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, and renovation in Astoria, Queens were featured in The New York Times.{{Cite news |last=McKeough |first=Tim |date=2019-09-27 |title=A 19th-Century Home in Brooklyn Gets a 21st-Century Makeover |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/27/realestate/a-19th-century-home-in-brooklyn-gets-a-21st-century-makeover.html?searchResultPosition=2 |access-date=2025-04-28 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |last=Lasky |first=Julie |date=2024-05-31 |title='You Can Be a Little Different in Queens': Why This Home Is Not Like the Others |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/31/realestate/you-can-be-a-little-different-in-queens-why-this-home-is-not-like-the-others.html?searchResultPosition=1 |access-date=2025-04-28 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}
Background
Ruth Mandl and Bobby Johnston met while they were studying for their Masters Degree in Architecture at Columbia University in New York.{{Cite web |date=2022-08-24 |title=Function Before Beauty: CO Adaptive's Ruth Mandl on Questioning the Status Quo |url=https://www.madamearchitect.org/interviews/2022/8/18/ruth-mandl |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=Madame Architect |language=en-US}} Ruth is Austrian and was born and raised in Vienna. She holds a Bachelor's in Interior Architecture from Kingston University in London. Bobby is originally from California and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Architecture from UC Berkeley.{{Cite web |title=Design Vanguard 2022: CO Adaptive {{!}} Architectural Record |url=https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/15691-design-vanguard-2022-co-adaptive |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=www.architecturalrecord.com |language=en}}
CO Adaptive's projects use passive house design principles to minimize environmental footprint, such as carbon emissions from materials or energy efficiency.{{Cite web |date=2022-03-24 |title=Redesigning the Road to Net Zero: How CO Adaptive Architecture is Breaking New Ground |url=https://www.archdaily.com/978864/redesigning-the-road-to-net-zero-how-co-adaptive-architecture-is-breaking-new-ground |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=ArchDaily |language=en-US}} As both architect and builder managing the whole design and construction process, they can deconstruct and reuse more existing construction material on-site by designing it into the project. They partner with a network of appraisers, donation centers and recycling companies to prevent sending construction and demolition waste to landfill.{{Cite web |title=CO Adaptive Uses Low-carbon Design to Rejuvenate Old Buildings |url=https://metropolismag.com/profiles/co-adaptive-uses-low-carbon-design-to-rejuvenate-old-buildings/ |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=Metropolis |language=en-US}} Since 2019, they've been committed to not using foam insulation in their building projects due to its detrimental environmental impact.
The studio's first published project was a competition-winning entry for the Architects for Animals competition in 2011, organized by the non-profit Mayor's Alliance for New York City's Animals.{{Cite web |title=Architects Design Homes for NYC's Stray Cats {{!}} 2011-12-27 {{!}} Architectural Record |url=https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/2422-architects-design-homes-for-nyc-s-stray-cats |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=www.architecturalrecord.com |language=en}} They collaborated with architect Kathryn Walton, founder of the nonprofit The American Street Cat, Inc., and created a shelter out of recycled and donated materials, featuring a data-monitoring component that transmits information such as the duration of a cat's stay and its weight to a base station in real time.{{Cite news |last=LaBarre |first=Suzanne |date=2012-01-03 |title=Swanky Shelters To Keep Stray Cats Warm In The Winter |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/1665728/swanky-shelters-to-keep-stray-cats-warm-in-the-winter |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250428171232/https://www.fastcompany.com/1665728/swanky-shelters-to-keep-stray-cats-warm-in-the-winter |archive-date=2025-04-28 |access-date=2025-05-19 |work=Fast Company |language=en-US}}
Works
CO Adaptive has designed performing arts facilities including the Mercury Store in Gowanus, Brooklyn (2021). This community theater space is an adaptive reuse of a historic metal foundry built in 1902. The new design combines cross-laminated timber (CLT) with the original timber beams from the 100+ year old structure, and is among the first commercial buildings in New York City to utilize CLT in an adaptive reuse project.{{Cite news |title=Old and New Timber Construction Meet in a Brooklyn Warehouse |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-01-28/brooklyn-warehouse-reuse-mixes-old-wood-and-new-timber-tech |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230130170732/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-01-28/brooklyn-warehouse-reuse-mixes-old-wood-and-new-timber-tech |archive-date=2023-01-30 |access-date=2025-04-28 |work=Bloomberg.com |language=en |url-status=live }} CO Adaptive's design for Mercury Store was featured in the 2023 MOMA Show 'Architecture Now: New York, New Publics.'{{Cite news |last=Shaw |first=Matt |date=2023-02-24 |title=New York, new architecture: how is the city changing with the times? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/feb/24/new-york-new-architecture-how-is-the-city-changing-with-the-times |access-date=2025-04-28 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}
In 2013, CO Adaptive designed an experimental dance space in a former industrial building for Triskelion in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The client, a non-profit dance venue and rehearsal space, expanded to create more affordable performance space for emerging artists.{{Cite web |title=Triskelion Arts Plans Big Move! |url=https://www.dance-enthusiast.com/dance-listings/events/search/view/Triskelion-Arts-Plans-Big-Move-2013-09-26#google_vignette |access-date=2025-04-28 |website=www.dance-enthusiast.com |language=en}}