CO Adaptive
CO Adaptive | Timber Adaptive Reuse Theater, Brooklyn, NY, 2021. Image credit: Naho Kubota
The Architectural League’s biennial Emerging Voices program spotlights North American architects, landscape architects, and urban designers who have significant bodies of realized work and the potential to influence their field.
Bobby Johnston and Ruth Mandl of CO Adaptive are 2026 Emerging Voices winners.
New York City–based design firm CO Adaptive’s work spans adaptive reuse and retrofits of residential, creative, and civic spaces with a focus on circularity—preserving and repurposing preexisting building materials in renovation projects. Founded in New York City in 2011 by Bobby Johnston and Ruth Mandl, the firm has progressively expanded its scope to include construction, deconstruction, and material salvage with the establishment of CO Adaptive Building and CO Adaptive Disassembly, reflecting their belief that “bridging disciplines is essential to effecting change,” in their own words.
Projects include:
SPARC Deconstruction Initiative, an ongoing project that will salvage glazed ceramic blocks, wood panelings, and auditorium seating from Hunter College’s Brookdale Health Science Center, currently under demolition, and direct the materials toward future projects
Salvaged Material Artist Studio, a production studio for the arts nonprofit Materials for the Arts’s artist residency program constructed entirely from reused, donated, and salvaged materials
Tiny Queens Passive House, a 1,152-square-foot brick rowhouse, originally built in 1945, that underwent deconstruction instead of demolition and was renovated to be fully-electrified and energy-and material-efficient
CO Adaptive received a Best of Practice award from The Architect’s Newspaper and was the Governors Island Climate Solutions Challenge Winner in 2025. Their work was featured in the New York, New Publics exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in 2023.
Bobby Johnston holds a master’s of architecture from Columbia University GSAPP and a bachelor’s of arts in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley.
Ruth Mandl holds a master’s of architecture from Columbia University GSAPP and a bachelor’s of arts in interior architecture from Kingston University.
